The Oxford Student - Week 7 Trinity 2023

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Why is it so hard to walk around Oxford?

Food & Drink Kasturi Pindar tells us about the faces behind formal hall

News

The first ever Sikh Langar has been held on campus

Trinity Term, Week 7 | Friday 9 June 2023

OXFORD STUDENT The

The University of Oxford’s Student Newspaper, Est. 1991

Activist glued to the floor derails Kathleen Stock talk

The Oxford Student News Team

events in colleges, then followed by a rally in Bonn Square and march to St Michael’s Street, with a protest outside the Oxford Union.

Panels highlighted dangerous hate speech and trans joy in the face of “very loaded” media coverage of the OULGBTQ+ Society. Professor Max Van Kleek

called it the “real debate about the role of free speech”.

Dr Clara Barker also highlighted that the backlash to Stock, “rather than stifling free speech… actually [created] more discussion”, and hoped that hate speech could be recognised by “emotional intelligence”.

ers were removed by the police and the event was allowed to continue.

As a result, the Union was placed on full lockdown and no further individuals were allowed inside the gates for the rest of the event.

Possnett said on social media, “I did not attempt to prevent Kathleen Stock from speaking.

Whilst I believe her speech is dangerous and hateful, she is entitled to exercise her right to free speech. I chose to exercise my own Article 10 and 11 rights to peacefully protest this speech…Kathleen Stock is not welcome here. TERFs are not welcome here. We will resist hatred and we will fight for trans rights.”

Stock was interviewed by Union President, Matthew Dick, for around an hour covering topics such as single-sex bathrooms, morality in gender critical feminism, cancel culture and more.

She then was subject to questioning by audience members from the dispatch box.

Throughout the event the protest could be heard outside, with chants such as “Trans

Read more on page 4

University says that “overwhelming majority” “ I felt of exams will go ahead obligated

Charlie Bowden Senior Editor

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he University of Oxford has said that the “overwhelming majority” of examinations will go ahead as planned during industrial action by the University and College Union (UCU).

Most degree results will also be released on schedule.

In updated guidance for stu-

dents regarding the ongoing industrial action, the University said that students should assume all their exams are going ahead unless they are told otherwise.

They also advise students completing any non-examination assessments to complete them “according to submission dates already published, unless told otherwise by your department or faculty”. Mark-

Read more on page 5

to fight for both myself and the community

“

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ournalists from The Oxford Student watched the protests, counter protests, and more which took place in response to the Kathleen Stock event hosted by the Oxford Union.

Oxford Trans Rights protests had been ongoing since 2pm that afternoon, first via panel

Protests began at 4pm outside Westgate, with chants for “LGB with a T” and “trans power, trans joy”. Outreach worker Chrissie Chevasutt spoke to the crowd before the march to the Union, encouraging them to “not reflect back their hate, but show them love” as “our joy is our power”.

The queue for the event went all along St Michael’s Street and beyond. Hundreds made the journey, in some cases even from outside of Oxford.

Inside the fully packed chamber, Stock was greeted by applause and a standing ovation from some members of the audience before being interviewed.

The interview went on for less than ten minutes before trans activist Riz Possnett glued themself to the floor at the front of the chamber and refused to move. They wore a shirt with the words “No More Dead Trans Kids”. Two others Read more on page 3 came out of the audience waving rainbow flags and throwing leaflets. After a twenty minute disruption, with the Union Bursar liaising with the police forces, Possnett and the oth-

- Skye Levett, Trans Rep for the SU LGBTQ+ campaign

2 | Editorial

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

TRINITY TERM 2023 EDITORIAL TEAM EDITORS IN CHIEF Rose Henderson and Ayomilekan Adegunwa ASSOCIATE EDITORS Emily Hudson and Matthew Holland CREATIVE DIRECTOR Blane Aitchison STRATEGY Milo Dennison (director), Hannah Byrne-Smith, Susie Barrows, Priya Mahan DEPUTY EDITORS Martin Alfonsin Larsen, Tara Earley, Frankie Coy, Matt Holland, Charlie Bowden, Jasmine Wilkinson, Niall Hall, Sami Jalil, Haochen Wang NEWS Martin Alfonsin Larsen, Charlie Bowden, Anvee Bhutani, Canqi Li, Gabrielle Thompson, Daisy Outram, Eleanor Luxton, Milo Dennison COMMENT Tara Earley, Leon Wheeler, Vedika Rastogi, Jack Arrowsmith PROFILE Matthew Holland, Vedika Rastogi PINK Blane Aitchison, Daisy Outram IDENTITY Sami Jalil, Farrah Bergstrom, Georgia Ferris, Anna Ashkinazi FEATURES Frankie Coy, Haochen Wang, Grace Rees, Purav Menon CULTURE Charlie Bowden, Johannah Mathew, Jennifer Robinson, Lukas Seifert, Miracle Kalonga FOOD & DRINK Jasmine Wilkinson, Kasturi Pindar GREEN Jasmine Wilkinson, Eliza Smith SCITECH Emily Hudson, Nicole Hasler, Tymoteusz Syrytczyk OXYOU Niall Hall, Milo Dennison, Lukas Seifert SPORT Haochen Wang, Patrick Groves, Bradley Beck, Eleanor Luxton COLUMNISTS Blane Aitchison, Jonah Poulard, Amanda Li, Tasneem Jodiyawalla

issuu.com/theoxfordstudent

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he week starting with the Oxford Student website going down was an inauspicious start to the term’s final print edition. But a server upgrade later, alongside two days spent in the SU offices, Ayomi and I can, at the very least, point to a legacy of one more year of technological health for oxfordstudent.com.

From the aforementioned crash to the OxStu’s highest views per day ever, the term has gone incredibly quickly. Being Editor in Chief has been such a privilege, and I’d like to extend a huge thanks to everyone on the team who has made this term possible. It’s been amazing to see the editorial team

get involved at all levels of the paper, getting stuck in at lay-ins, and creating a vast range of interesting, entertaining, and elucidating content for the Oxford student community.

While it is sad to see the reign of Worcester PPE over the OxStu end, I’m very proud looking back over our term. Ayomi has been a fantastic partner at the helm of the paper, providing lots of laughs, editorial guidance, and a keen eye for a good story, being the first to identify the tale of Trinity: Kathleen Stock’s appearance at the Union. Our official legacy is also down to him, as the birthgiver of the OxStu newsletter.

I’ve made such wonderful friends at OxStu, and hopefully I’ll be allowed to stick around in some made up capacity next term. And for the future Editors in Chief, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

@theoxstu

@theofficialoxstu

Editors’ Picks Comment

Publish or perish: why student journalism matters

Profile

Simon Kuper, the author of ‘Chums’, sits down with Matthew Holland and Martin Alfonsin Larsen

12

Rose Henderson,

Worcester College

Culture

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sit here, on my 20th birthday, writing my final editorial. I’m back in the place where it all started – the SU building. In Trinity of my first year, I came here to lay in the Sport section. I had no idea what I was doing, nor had I ever used InDesign.

A year later, I still don’t really know how to use InDesign, but many other things have changed.

I’ve held pretty much every role at the paper – from section editor to deputy editor to associate editor and now editor in chief. It’s been an amazing four terms to be involved with the paper, and this last term as editor-in-chief has been truly remarkable.

Having a good co-editor-in-chief is a massive part of having a good

gratias ago, amici

Ayomilekan Adegunwa,

Worcester College

W

ow, what a term it’s been. I’m very proud of all we’ve achieved these past 7 weeks, though my own presence has somewhat dwindled. At time of writing, I’ve finished exam two of six, and am about to wander off to another library and hole up for a nice sunny afternoon of study.

We’ve seen some quite stunning pieces of work, from investigations to deep dives into politics, both in Oxford and farther afield. Thanks very much to all the wonderful dep eds, and also to our section editors who I hope will come back next term! The Oxstu thrives on new people, as this term is testament to. Do consider applying - I promise it’s great fun.

Emily Hudson, Oriel College

24

In conversation with Ed Norton

Sport Summer VIIIs: an Oxford dream

From the Editors term as editor-in-chief, and I have been fortunate enough to have an excellent co-editor, the estimable and inimitable Rose Henderson.

I’ve said in the past that the continuing functioning of the paper is down to Rose, and I still maintain this – she can (and should!) take lots of credit for the success we’ve seen as a paper. I’m sure I can speak for the whole paper in thanking Rose for her hard work this term.

There are many other people who are worthy of a mention, far more than could be contained in this editorial - the whole team has been amazing. When I reflect on the past term, I feel a deep sense of pride for everything the team has achieved, and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for being a part of this.

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xStu readers: In the event that this might be my last term at the OxStu, we are looking for an editor from Portsmouth who is able to fulfil our legal requirement to have someone from Portsmouth on the editorial team. Sadly, Charlie Bowden is from Basingstoke which, while being in Hampshire, is decidedly not near Portsmouth.

Once upon a time in 2007, Boris Johnson said that Portsmouth was “too full of drugs, obesity, and underachievement”, and the OxStu has managed to prove him constantly wrong with our Portsmouth bias. It is imperative that we keep up this rebuke for the sake of Portsmouth’s pride.

Thanks Blane and Emily!

Matthew Holland,

Exeter College

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

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oxstu.editor@gmail.com

@TheOxStu

Contents News - p. 3 Comment - p. 8 Profile - p. 12

The Oxford Student

oxfordstudent.com

State school admissions stagnate while applications from the EU plummet

Martin Alfonsin Larsen Head of News

Identity - p. 14 Pink - p. 15 Columns - p. 16 OxYou - p. 19 Features - p. 20 Culture - p. 22 Green - p. 26 SciTech - p. 27 Food & Drink - p. 30

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Sport - p. 31

dmissions data released by the University of Oxford has revealed that applications from EU students have fallen significantly over the last 5 years. Meanwhile, admissions from students outside the EU and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged or minority backgrounds have risen.

The University received 23,819 applications in 2022, down from a record high of 24,338 in 2021. The offer rate in 2022 was 15.3%, with over 3,600 students receiving an offer.

However, rates across courses vary significantly. From 20202022, there were 20.2 applicants per place for Computer Science, the course with the highest number of applicants per place. In contrast, Music had a little over 2 applicants per place in the same period of time.

The proportion of students admitted from state schools has stagnated at 68.1% in 2022,

following from 68.2% in 2021, and 68.6% in 2020. Data indicating the proportion of offers to students in state schools in 2023 has yet to be released.

However, the admissions rate for students in independent schools remains higher than that of students from state schools.

There is also a significant regional divide, with London and the South East making up 47.2% of applications between 2020-2022, and 47.6% of students admitted. The rest of the UK made up 52.8% of applications and 52.4% of students admitted.

Applications from EU students have plummeted since 2018, with a marked decline from 2,687 in 2018 to 1,787 in 2022.

Non-EU applications, however, have risen significantly, from 5,816 to 7,463 in the same period. The highest number of overseas applications and admitted students was from the People’s Republic of China.

Meanwhile, applications

from UK-domiciled BME students have risen substantially since 2018, reaching 4,610 from 3,097 in 2018. In 2022, they made up 27.8% of all UK students admitted to the University. This is higher than the Russell Group’s average of 26.8%, although slightly lower than that of all UK universities, which sits at 28.1%.

The number of UK students from socioeconomically disadvantaged groups and areas of low progression to higher education has also risen.

In 2022, 15.5% of UK students admitted to Oxford came from the most socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, an increase of 4.2% from 2018, while 16.6% of UK students admitted were from the groups with lowest progression to higher education, an increase of 3.5% from 2018. The number of students who were eligible for free school meals also increased 2% from 2021-2022, now at 7.3%.

While three A grades is Oxford’s minimum standard offer for applicants taking A-levels, almost 91.2% of admitted students were awarded A*AA or better at A-level, with 60.8% of admitted students achieving three A* grades or better at A-level.

Applications from UK students who had declared a disability on application rose from

9.3% to 12.8% of all applicants in 2022, an increase of 3.5% points. Students with declared disabilities now make up 11.5% of total UK students admitted.

The report states that 188 students benefited from the University’s bridging programme Opportunity Oxford. The programme helps to “[develop] high-level academic skills that support the success of participants”, and involves a two week residential in Oxford prior to the beginning of a course in October.

The University also made 35 offers through the Astrophoria Foundation Year, which is open to students who have experienced “disadvantage or disruption” in their education.

Upon completion of the foundation year, they can progress onto an undergraduate course at Oxford without the need to re-apply. The programme will commence in 2023.

Vice Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey stated: “It is encouraging to see that steady progress continues to be made to ensure that those with the highest academic potential, from all backgrounds, can realise their aspirations to study here – despite admissions continuing to be increasingly competitive”.

Tracey added that “our students reflect the UK’s diversity in many respects, and we want

to maintain long-term progress in this area […] we will continue to innovate and build on the success of our existing outreach initiatives”.

Illustration: Jonas Muschalski

4 | News

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

Activist glued to the floor derails Kathleen Stock talk The Oxford Student News Team

Rights Now” echoing through the chamber. The expected attendance for the protest was close to 500 people.

Joel Aston, current co-chair of the SU LGBTQ+ campaign, commented: “I went to the event earlier, where there were a lot of panels having conversations that [framed and centred] trans people.

“We had a protest aspect with marching which was really powerful. And now we’re just enjoying ourselves.

“I think a lot of the activists want to centre joy right now,

as our power, because a lot of the critical rhetoric is that we shouldn’t have access to this, we shouldn’t have access to the right to enjoy ourselves, and love ourselves, and have a good time.”

A critic of the protest who queued to enter the Union chamber while the protest happened commented: “I completely support people to do whatever they want, and completely support trans people, but not if it represses people’s rights to freedom of speech and people’s rights to call themselves women.

“I can’t stand by and see people acting in this fascistic way that the trans lobby is acting. There’s hate crimes against feminists now: I believe in the right of anyone, academic or normal person, to express themselves.”

Skye Levett, Trans Rep for the SU’s LGBTQ+ campaign and LGBTQ+ Officer at Worcester College commented: “It’s important as a trans person to fight for your rights in these sorts of situations.

“I felt obligated to fight for both myself and the community, but it’s also nice to have

a community and a positive space for trans people and allies to come together and show that it’s not all bad and, that even in the face of discrimination, and people saying that you shouldn’t exist or that we don’t exist, that we can celebrate our existence for a while.

Angharad Thomas, LGBTQ Officer at Oriel College’s JCR and one of the protest marshals, commented: “I proposed the motion to condemn the Union’s invitation of Kathleen Stock, and it was a tough process in Oriel as

Cont. from page 1

some people might have expected.

“I think it’s right that Stock is condemned, because it’s not right that she should be allowed to speak so freely about issues that directly affect me and so many others in Oxford.”

Reporting by Anvee Bhutani, Rose Henderson, Ayomilekan Adegunwa, Milo Dennison, Daisy Outram and Martin Alfonsin Larsen.

Quotes and comments have been edited for clarity.

Solidarity, condemnation, and confusion: reactions to Kathleen Stock’s invitation to the Oxford Union The Oxford Student News Team

T

he invitation of Kathleen Stock to speak at the Oxford Union attracted a litany of reactions from various parties, both affiliated with the University of Oxford and existing outside of it.

In a display of solidarity, more than 100 Oxfordbased staff members signed a response letter supporting trans rights and standing alongside trans students.

Students also demanded a formal apology from Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Williams, following the recent Student Union (SU) motion to cut financial ties with the Oxford Union (OU), while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also publicly intervened, arguing that “Kathleen Stock’s invitation to the Oxford Union must stand”.

The students’ open letter, signed by more than 150 students, alleged that the motion passed by the SU did not mention Dr. Stock’s talk,

and thus contributed to a disingenuous national media narrative.

On 18th May, Professor Williams published a letter in The Telegraph, expressing wishes for the SU and Union to work together, and emphasising the importance of free speech. The letter also stated that the SU’s motion to ban the Union from having a stall at the Freshers’ Fair would be overridden by allowing the Union to have a stall through the Proctors.

Students expressed disappointment that Professor Williams chose to address the issue indirectly through the media, instead of engaging with the student body.

The letter argued that the SU represents all students at the University, and motions passed by the Student Council should be prioritised.

In their open letter, the students called for three specific actions. Firstly, they requested that Professor Williams retract his letter to

The Telegraph, dated 18th May 2023. Secondly, they urged him to issue a formal apology to the students of the University, highlighting the undermining effect his letter had on their voices.

Finally, they asked for his engagement with LGBTQ+ students through the SU’s LGBTQ+ Campaign and the LGBTQ+ Society to acknowledge the harm caused and work towards a safer environment for queer students and staff.

Williams responded to the letter by stating that the University “fully support[s] the right of all students and staff, including trans people” to be treated with respect.

Williams added that it had been a “difficult period for the University community” with lots of “confusion and misinformation”, proposing a meeting with letter organisers Kelsey Trevett, Rachel Mayhart, and Addi Haran Diman, to discuss the University’s approach to freedom of speech.

The letter by academics addressed the concerns raised by a group of 44 Oxford academics who opposed the campaign against Kathleen Stock’s appearance at the Oxford Union.

The academics, including Prof. Richard Dawkins and Prof. Nigel Biggar, spoke in defence of free speech, and stated that they came from views spanning “Left and Right”.

It was initiated and organized by Amiad (Addi) Haran Diman, President of the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society and a Doctoral Researcher in Politics at Lincoln College, alongside other notable scholars such

as Prof. Kate Tunstall, Prof.

Dan Healey, and Prof. Max Van Kleek.

The letter begins by acknowledging the increased harm and suffering faced by trans individuals in recent years. It refutes several mistaken claims made about the Oxford University LGBTQ+ students’ campaign, pointing out the “online harassment campaign” that followed Stock’s response and the detrimental impact of sensationalist news coverage, which resulted in death threats against a student activist.

Furthermore, the letter expressed solidarity with the OULGBTQ+ Society and their campaign against Kathleen Stock’s views, as well as the Oxford Union’s decision to amplify them. The signatories emphasised that trans students should not be forced to debate their very existence, asserting that disinviting a speaker does not impede their right to free speech. They portrayed trans advocates as a persecuted minority seeking basic dignity, respect, and freedom from political demonization.

The staff members went on to voice their disappointment with the university’s leadership, criticizing their lack of care and attention to student concerns and welfare. They highlight the media’s ridiculing of the need to prioritize student well-being and assert that the university leadership’s failure to listen or communicate with protesting students further exacerbated the situation.

The letter called for attentive leadership and care for student well-being, applaud-

ing Oxford students for their strength and capability to engage with dissenting ideas in a constructive manner.

Concluding the letter, the signatories emphasised the importance of civil conversations and the need to reduce bad-faith argumentation in public discourse. They asserted that the theoretical debate over gender is secondary to the fundamental issues affecting trans people, such as living conditions, autonomy, dignity, and respect.

While acknowledging the significance of freedom of speech, the letter called for equal consideration of the right to protest. It urged the media and the University to take trans voices seriously and treat them with respect.

Kathleen Stock’s views also faced widespread condemnation from college JCRs and the LGBTQ+ society at Oxford. JCR support includes motions from many colleges including St Anne’s, Brasenose, Christ Church, Exeter, Hertford, Keble, Magdalen, Merton, Oriel, Queens, Wadham, demonstrating a widespread endorsement of the LGBTQ+ society’s stance.

Trevett, a student organiser of the letter, commented: “Student democracy is vital.

As a non-binary student at Oxford, I was deeply frustrated to see Prof Williams’ conflation of two issues, culminating in his letter in the Telegraph, fuelling media hostility towards trans students. Our open letter demonstrates that when given a voice, students place the safety of our community first and foremost every time. Our voice must not be undermined by university management.”

News | 5

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

University says “overwhelming majority” of exams will go ahead Daisy Outram News Editor

Cont. from page 1

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arking for collections will not be affected, as they are specific to colleges. However, the boycott will affect Prelims and Finals.

DPhil students have also been warned that their doctoral vivas may be affected.

Most degree results are expected to be released “on schedule”, but they note that “in some cases” students may not be able to graduate when they expect to if “a substantial amount” of their work has not been marked by a specific time.

Departments and faculties will inform students if it becomes apparent that their results and graduation will be delayed.

If results are delayed, students are expected to receive a document “outlining the situation and summarising confirmed marks and pending assessments” from their department or faculty.

This document can be shared with potential employers and higher education institutions in lieu of the full results.

Students can submit a mitigating circumstances notice to examiners (MCE) if they believe they have been negatively impacted by industrial action and insufficient alternatives have been provided.

Refunds will not be issued for course fees due to industrial action. This is because of the “continued learning opportunities, facilities and support” the University

claims it is offering throughout the industrial action, and the steps they are taking to minimise its disruption.

The University maintains that “all assessments completed will be marked, and the University is making every effort to ensure that marking is done promptly.

Regrettably, it is possible that some marks may be delayed”.

The University expects the number of instances of serious disruption to be small.

Guidance for departments has been updated to “ensure assessments are marked and results are shared in a timely manner”.

Similar information has been shared in an email to Oxford students.

The UCU’s current marking and assessment boycott (MAB) began on 20 April after consultations with union members. As part of those consultations, members also voted to continue action short of strike (ASOS) over disputes in pay and conditions as well as pensions.

According to the UCU website, the boycott concerns “all summative marking and associated assessment activities and duties (such as exam invigilation)” university employees are expected to perform.

The University has stated that although they recognise their employees’ right to take industrial action, they “regret the impact the UCU’s action is having on some students.”

Students standing with Ukraine form New Russian Society New Russian Society particular less well-known denied Russian atrocities

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at the University of Oxford has recently been created, with the aim of becoming a “safe space for everyone who wants to cocreate a new, peaceful and free Russia”. Their Instagram bio makes it clear that they “stand with Ukraine”.

In the society’s first post to Instagram on 31st May, they state that they are run by “Oxford University students from Russia and of diverse Russia-related backgrounds” and they intend to provide a space for students who “resist the idea of Russian statecraft in its current form”.

Their goals include enabling discussion of Russian history, politics, and reforms, elevating the “narratives and contributions of marginalised communities”. They also seek to engage critically with the imperial legacy and impact of Russia and the Soviet Union.

Anastasia Ardasheva, an MD-PhD student in Graduate Entry Medicine at Harris Manchester College, is the society’s president. She told The Oxford Student that there had been interest in a new Russian society at Oxford for several years.

She stated that many ethnic Russian and Russia-related students at Oxford did not feel represented by the societies on offer and, in the wake of the war with Ukraine, wanted to create a society that was explicitly anti-Putin.

In spite of Putin’s unifying ideology of “one Russia”, Ardasheva emphasised there are many forms of Russian identity. Through the society she aims to represent those narratives by inviting guest speakers and building a community among Russian-identified students at Oxford.

In particular Ardasheva noted that in contrast to Putin’s oppression of “gay propaganda”, many members of the society were taking part in Oxford Pride events throughout June. An Instagram post stated that the society is “proud to embrace members and friends of the Society with their diverse and overlapping identities”.

The New Russian Society has already had its first event: a protest in support of Russian political prisoners on 4th June, the birthday of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which took place at 2pm outside the Radcliffe Camera.

Attendees were encouraged to print out pictures of Russian political prisoners, in

Charlie Bowden News Editor

ones, to be put up around the Radcliffe Camera as a reminder of their plight under Putin.

The protest was part of a global rally being held in numerous cities across the world, organised by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a non-profit founded by Navalny in 2011. The society said on Instagram after the protest that they wanted to show “solidarity with Russian political prisoners and recall how many brave people suffer in Russia for democratic and anti-war beliefs”. Navalny has been in Russian custody since January 2021, having been sentenced to nine years in prison for embezzlement and contempt of court in March 2022. Amnesty International called the proceedings a “sham trial”. Their statement ends by expressing that the formation of the society is a “sincere, albeit modest, attempt to combat the harmful deeds of the current Russian political establishment, prevent revanchism, and work actively towards the future where aggression becomes impossible”.

The “New” in the New Russian Society reflects its distinction from the Oxford Russian Club, founded in 1909

by Prince Felix Yusupov. An explicitly apolitical organisation, the Oxford Russian Club was criticised in February 2022 for its silence on the invasion of Ukraine.

The Oxford Russian Club’s website does not list a current committee and only includes two events on its Trinity 2023 term card: a coronation tea party and a Q&A session with the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin.

The Kelin Q&A, which took place on 11 May, was criticised when it was announced for its potential to be used to claim that Russia still has legitimacy in the west. He has

committed in Ukraine on several occasions.

When his invitation was announced, the Oxford University Ukrainian Society told Cherwell that “the presence of Mr Kelin in the city wedges a knife in an open wound”. Some Ukrainian Oxford students told the Oxford Mail that they had applied to attend the session with Kelin but were denied.

A protest took place outside the house the Q&A was hosted in. Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East, expressed concerns ahead of the session that Kelin was being “given a platform to speak on behalf of Vladimir Putin’s regime”.

Ardasheva stated that although the New Russian Society was not formed in opposition to the Oxford Russian Club, her past interactions with its members had not been positive. She also argued that inviting Kelin to speak was essentially siding with Putin, despite the club calling themselves apolitical.

Additionally, Ardasheva told The Oxford Student that, by engaging in a society that opposes Putin, members of the New Russian Society are taking a risk, especially if they have family in Russia or other ties to the country. She recognised that the society is privileged to be able to speak out when those in Russia being directly affected by Putin’s regime cannot.

The Oxford New Russian Society aims to fill a previously unoccupied space, providing a safe and supportive community for students from or affiliated with Russia to explore ideas that contradict those of Putin.

Though they have only just submitted the paperwork for formal recognition by the University, it is clear that they have a lot of support from Russian-identified students and beyond.

6 | News

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

University hosts its first Sikh Langar Sami Jalil

News Editor

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n May 22nd, students at the University of Oxford made history in organising the first ever Sikh Langar to be held on the campus.

Langar is the 500-year-old community kitchen of a gurdwara (Sikh place of worship) which serves free vegetarian meals to all regardless of religion, caste, gender, economic status, or ethnicity.

On arrival at the langar hosted in Oxford, attendees each received a head covering with their names in Punjabi. Following a presentation on Langar and Sikh values by Serene Singh, Rhodes Scholar and Graduate President for the Oxford Sikh Society, there was a performance of Sikh kirtan music with traditional Indian classical instruments including the vaaja (harmonium) and the tabla (drums).

The event concluded with the attendees sitting on the

floor cross-legged and sharing a meal.

Serene Singh was selected to be a Rhodes scholar in 2019, and is “grateful to have community and a home in Rhodes House”. Singh organised the event “as an opportunity for [...] scholars, students and leaders, most of whom have never heard of a Langar, to have an immersive experience with people who can go back to their own cultures from around the world; even if they never have the chance to experience a Langar again, the values of the Langar stick with them.”

Singh added that the langar is open to people not just of Sikh faith, demonstrating this both through the event at Oxford and through future plans to open it to more students and those in need around the city.

Singh stated further: “What is really beautiful about Langars is that they puts into practice what people in Oxford

speak a lot about - equality, justice, and breaking systems of oppression. We hear about it a lot in academia, but rarely are we able to see it in practice.

“Langar continues to exist through over 500 years of history, and [addresses an important question in our society]: how can we humanise people that we otherwise thought we could not?” Singh has had notable impact during her time as a student, recently making history by re-

citing “Mool Mantar” (a Sikh prayer) instead of the traditional Latin one at a St Peter’s College formal dinner.

Singh also highlighted the prominence of “[the many] structures and systems at Oxford that prevent access”, and notes how the Sikh Langar “challenges all forms of hierarchy”. Singh summarised the Langar tradition by stating: “We are all equal no matter who we are or what our identities are.”

News Editor

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Associate Editor

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Eleanor Luxton

ing achieved by Oriel and St Hugh’s - provide statements about environmental sustainability on their website, but there is “little concrete information on future plans and initiatives”.

Many colleges, including New, Mansfield, and Pembroke, provide no information on their donations policy. Others, including Nuffield, Merton, and Lincoln have provided no evidence to suggest that sustainability is taken into account with their banking choices.

CLOC was a predecessor of the Student Union’s traffic light sustainability demands.

Matthew Holland

eteran LGBTQ+ rights activist, Peter Tatchell, announced that he would not participate in an Oxford Union debate over Kathleen Stock’s event last week.

St Antony’s and Kellogg top Oxford colleges in CLOC sustainability rankings he Climate League of Oxford and Cambridge (CLOC) have released their annual statistics on the sustainability of colleges, with St Antony’s topping the table with 59.3% out of 100%.

St Antony’s success is partly down to its ethical donations policy, which would exclude or restrict financial support from fossil fuel companies.

The college also has a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Action Plan and has employed a sustainability officer.

In contrast, Queen’s and St Catherine’s - which sit just above the 0% rank-

Peter Tatchell pulls out of Union Pride debate

The team are encouraging students to publicise CLOC’s findings and speak with their JCR and MCR benches to pressure colleges into urgent change. Summaries of policies and motions will be drafted by CLOC team members over summer.

Jessye Philips, a CLOC representative from Jesus College, said: “The CLOC Evidence Base has been useful for me as a tool to push for change within my college as an E&E rep. I would also have something like this as a prospective student, trying to work out the differences between colleges during the applica-

tion process. It was great to see so much more college engagement with CLOC than we saw last year. 15 of the colleges responded to our questionnaire, and we’ve already been contacted by colleges who want to work with us further”.

CLOC’s methodology has changed since its beginnings as a joint project between the wider community and students in 2021, meaning that we cannot compare this year’s data to previous years’.

However, the four principles divestment, delinking, decarbonisation and governance - remain the same.

The project aims to encourage greater transparency on how colleges will meet the central University’s 2035 date for net zero. This involves making climate a consideration in all aspects of college policies, and creating an accessible database for students and staff alike.

CLOC’s methodology begins with a questionnaire sent to colleges, to which 15 colleges responded this year.

It is anticipated that the delayed Cambridge CLOC tables will be published in Autumn 2023.

Image credit: CLOC

The debate motion “This House believes the commercialisation of Pride has done more harm than good” would have included Tatchell in the proposition.

Writing to the Oxford Union, in a statement that has been shared online, Tatchell spoke of his disagreement over the Union “giving Kathleen Stock a solo platform” at the controversial speaker event which took place on Tuesday.

The event, during which an activist glued themself to the floor of the Union chamber, was met with condemnation by both the OULGBTQ+ society and the SU’s LGBTQ+ Campaign. Members of both participated in Oxford’s first ever Trans+ Pride event, held outside the Union during the talk.

Tatchell’s criticism related to the “one-sided” nature of the event, as while students were able to question Stock from the dispatch box, no pro-trans rights speaker was brought in “to challenge her trans-exclusion policies”.

In a tweet, he expressed his feeling that the event was “wrong to deny trans people a voice in favour of those who want to restrict their human rights”. Tatchell stated that he wished to “stand in solidarity with the trans community” leading to his “reluctant” decision to pull out of the event.

He has previously spoken at the Union in Trinity Term 2022, opposing the motion: “This House would do whatever necessary”, during which he paused proceedings in order to play the Ukrainian national anthem through his phone speaker.

Tatchell joins the many students and staff in Oxford who condemned the Union for hosting Kathleen Stock.

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

News | 7

University appoints UK’s first professor of LGBTQ+ History

Daisy Outram News Editor

P

rofessor Matt Cook has been appointed to the UK’s first permanently endowed Professorship in LGBTQ+ History, as announced

by Mansfield College today.

Cook previously led the Gender and Sexuality Studies MA programme at Birkbeck University, which examined gender and sexuality in his-

torical, social, and literary contexts.

His research highlights social and cultural history, which influences his work advising heritage projects.

In 2017, he co-authored the National Trust’s first LGBTQ guidebook Prejudice and Pride, commemorating figures such as Vita SackvilleWest.

In 2022, he wrote Queer Beyond London, which looks

at English cities beyond the capital to explore lesser told queer stories, from the northern post-industrial heartlands to coastal cities in the South.

From October, Cook will be the first Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexualities, which honours the late Jonathan Cooper OBE. Cooper was a barrister and LGBTQ+ activist who advocated for the rights of trans people and those living with HIV, alongside raising the issue of conversion therapy.

The Professorship was made possible by a £4.9 million gift to Mansfield College from Arcadia, which aims to “preserve endangered cultural heritage”.

The post was established in association with Mansfield College, with its principal Helen Mountfield KC calling it “the start of an exciting research cluster exploring the histories and contributions of LGBTQ+ people”.

On Cook’s appointment, Mountfield has said he will be “a great fit in our proudly non-conformist college community which respects, protects and promotes a diverse range of voices and narratives”. She added that Cooper “would have been so honoured and delighted to see his legacy commemorated by this Chair”.

Rob Iliffe, the History Faculty Board Chair, has expressed that the faculty is “thrilled” at

Cook’s acceptance of the role, calling him “an outstanding historian” and expects “he will bring his unrivalled experience and energy to his post at Oxford”.

Iliffe also hoped that Cook’s presence “will be a source of inspiration to students and colleagues alike, and it will enhance Oxford’s reputation as a leader in the field of LGBTQ history”.

Professor Cook has called his appointment “a huge honour”, reflecting on “Jonathan Cooper’s inspirational legacy”. He promises he will be “championing the strong, existing vein of queer historical work at Oxford and fostering debate with LGBTQ scholars, writers, and activists”.

“Social media cannot hurt you”: Stormy Daniels speaks at the Union Gabrielle Thompson News Editor

A

dult film star Stormy Daniels was hosted for the second time at the Oxford Union. Daniels appeared in the public sphere after claiming that she received “hush money” before the 2016 election after her affair with then-presidential candidate and businessman Donald Trump.

Daniels’ address was highly compelling, if unconventional. At one point, she apologised for frequent profanity, stating that “the F word is one of my favourite words”.

Daniels described the impact that her revelations had on her social media profiles, describing: “I can’t tell you how many times I laid on the floor and wanted to die” after being “attacked in the press” and by “trolls and bots”. She detailed being called a “liar, slut, golddigger, whore… but none of that matters to me, because I do porn”.

Daniels’ address focused on ignoring abuse on social media, as she urged the audience to understand that “the internet is not real, and social media cannot hurt you”.

She wished for “serious, authentic conversations”, encouraging the audience “don’t be afraid to ask me anything, but don’t ask something you don’t want the answer to”.

Her address also discussed hypocrisy on social media, describing a “social experiment” where “I can put up a tweet that is positive… or

something neutral that has no effect on anybody, and it will get a very small number of comments or retweets. If I put up something negative, it explodes.”

She also described an atmosphere of toxicity, arguing “we’re all guilty of this negativity […] we like scandal, we like salaciousness, we like gossip”. She encouraged the audience to “do your due diligence” and “keep an open mind”.

Her experiences echoed those of another former adult performer, Mia Khalifa, who also spoke at the Union this term. Khalifa described intense social media backlash, and advised that the adult industry “should never be a first option”.

Trump’s alleged role in the affair was also addressed, with Daniels saying that she did not agree with the incident being branded an affair because “I would not consider 90 seconds of the worst part of my life an affair”. She also described how “[Trump’s] penis… was very unimpressive then, and it still is”.

Daniels stated that the NDA she signed after the alleged affair was “signed with a false name… I signed it in a panic, and then immediately went on TV and said ‘this is what happened’.

Asked if she regretted signing the NDA, she said “in some parts no… but another part of me says fuck yes, I re-

gret signing it, it would have saved me $600,000 and a lot of angry tweets”.

E Jean Carroll’s recent triumph in civil court was also discussed, after a jury found that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store changing room in the 1990s. Daniels stated that “I have no personal knowledge of that situation, but I’m thrilled for her”.

She described her shock when Carroll was asked why she did not scream, “because I didn’t scream, it didn’t even register for me to do so”.

However, Stormy Daniels also expressed her belief that the $5 million settlement Carroll received was not granted to her “because I do porn”, stating that “[Carroll] had a respectable job, so he must owe her $5 million”.

Daniels argued that Trump’s social media abuse stemmed from “a sense of entitle-

ment… grab enough women by the pussy and you’re going to start grabbing two at a time”.

In the Q&A section, the actress and director was asked if she hesitated to comment about Trump’s sexual performance. She said “it used to make me uncomfortable body-shaming Trump, but I did not do that until he did it to me first”.

She described feeling like she needed to include details of the encounter, especially because of his lack of distinguishing features like “a big Texas-shaped birthmark on his back”. Daniels added that “I wish I had anything else to prove that I saw him naked, apart from his penis“.

Daniels also stated “we all know that if I was lying and he had a massive endowment, he would have dropped his pants and showed it to us all”.

Union president Matthew Dick asked Daniels about the power dynamics of the alleged affair. She responded that “it was consensual” and “I didn’t say no”. However, Trump “baited” her, and “physically intimidated me by putting himself in between me and the door”.

Daniels also expressed her “hope that he is found guilty of the things he is guilty of, so I hope his spray tan can match his outfit”.

Daniels is expected in court in March of next year for a criminal trial. It will determine if Trump arranged for his lawyer Michael Cohen to pay her “hush money” to remain silent about their alleged affair.

Image credit: Victoria Pickering

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Deputy Editor: Tara Earley Section Editors: Leon Wheeler, Vedika Rastogi, Jack Arrowsmith oxstu.comment@gmail.com

When Kathleen Stock came to Oxford

by Ayomilekan Adegunwa

O

n the 22nd of April, the Oxford Student was the first outlet to publish an article about a ‘controversial gender critical feminist’ coming to speak at the Union. At the time this didn’t seem particularly special, so some of our team didn’t even think it warranted its own story. I did think it was worth one at the time – but I did not predict that it would become the biggest story to come out of Oxford in several years.

It seems strange that the story of Kathleen Stock’s visiting the Union became as big a story as it eventually became. The Union has had, and will continue to have, lots of controversial speakers – just last term there were hundreds of people in protest against the invitation of the Israeli ambassador. Many of these speakers have seen, and will continue to see, pushback by the student body, who have long been divided on their opinions about the Union.

What made the difference here was the attention that was paid to the story by the national media. The national media’s involvement in Oxford stories is usually quite predictable – predictable enough that several student journalists have made budding careers out of their ability to pitch Oxford stories to education editors at national papers. The formula is simple: stories about Oxford which can be related to the culture wars do well. This is down to two factors. Firstly, there is the Oxbridge bias – any story which can be related to Oxford or Cambridge is often viewed as inherently more newsworthy.

Secondly, there is the culture war aspect. The increasingly clear failure of right-wing eco-

nomic policy has led to a much larger focus on less concrete or tangible issues of culture and moral panics - see many columns in national newspapers. With universities, the standard issue is free speech, but this time, however, the free speech concerns were boosted by gender ideology concerns.

The combination proved to be massively successful – an Oxford story about freedom of speech over gender issues? It’s a hack’s dream.

Thus, a national story was born. What had begun as a regular example of student journalism was now one of the biggest stories in the country. This was all building up to the big event – Kathleen Stock speaking at the Union on a Tuesday afternoon. The event did feel like a big event, with TV cameras and national journalists descending on Oxford to report directly from the centre of the action. The Telegraph even live blogged the event, like it was a Champions League night. So many journalists had come to the event that student journalists were relegated to a bench behind the press bench to make room for the national journalists, who took our usual positions at the front.

Personally, I had come to the event wanting to see for myself if the person who has been championed by so many was as good as they said she was. I will admit that I was sceptical (which isn’t entirely shocking, considering I’m a left-leaning university student), but I was open-minded and genuinely intrigued as to whether she would have anything interesting to say. It is true that there are important policy discussions around some of these is-

sues – as more people identify as transgender, it is important to account for them in policy decisions.

I came away disappointed

by Stock’s arguments. Her supporters often portray her as a calm and rational voice.

If you were to listen to Stock explain why so many disagree with her, she would say that she is simply a ‘moderate’ who is painted as an extremist. In reality, her views are not well argued, and often do not stand up well to challenge. On this note, I do want to commend Matthew Dick for doing a good job challenging her – I had expected that he’d be soft on her, but his questions were probing and illuminating.

In reality, her views are not well argued, and often do not stand up well to challenge.

So what is my issue with her arguments? Simply, I think they are not as well thought as I would expect from a philosopher, despite her speaking in vaguely philosophical language. It means that most of what she says doesn’t seem massively offensive, but doesn’t hold up when pressed into further. For example, one of her main points is about trans women not being in bathrooms. This is because she believes that they are a danger to biological women. When presented with evidence casting doubt on that, she talked of her own experience – something she would never accept from the other side of the debate.

Leaving aside the fact that this claim is poorly evidenced, her solution doesn’t seem great – as

Dick pointed out in the interview. If trans women can’t use biological women’s bathrooms, they would have to use men’s bathrooms – which according to what she has said about male violence, is surely very dangerous for them, he noted.

Her solution is to divert the resources given to organisations like Stonewall to creating spaces for people who can’t use either – which is surely a vastly impractical suggestion. Even if this could be done, what happens in the short term? Her insistence on a biologically determinist feminism consistently leads to issues similar to this – like when she told Dick that she could think of herself as a man as much as she liked but ultimately is ‘not going to arm wrestle you very successfully’, as though that would make her a man in some way. As much as she may resist it, there is a reason why so much feminist literature focuses on gender as the social meaning of sex – misogyny frequently does not discriminate between biological and trans women.

Many people who are far more well versed in feminist philosophy than me also think that her arguments are not great – Catherine Mackinnon herself pointed out many of the issues with anti-trans feminism. I think Stock’s dismissive comment about her critics being ‘up to their neck in Judith Butler’ is emblematic of a wider approach to feminism for Stock.

She speaks in the way you’d expect an analytic philosopher to speak – but uses that as a veneer to make many of the same points that reactionary culture warriors would make.

In other words, she is a philosopher, but not one of feminism

– and I think it shows.

Like most people, I think that freedom of speech is important, and that making good arguments is important to freedom of speech. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean that I am required to hear or appreciate bad arguments. This is especially pertinent on issues like gender identity, where arguments not dissimilar from Stock’s can lead, and have already led, to unnecessarily cruel policies. It is for this reason that I will use my freedom of speech to say that I think that Kathleen Stock’s arguments are flawed and ultimately not that convincing.

However, I could have said that I don’t think her arguments are good without actually having to see her at the Union. She is constantly platformed by various media organisations, so if I wanted to find out what she thought, I could find out.

After all the media frenzy, in the end, Stock got her speech in the Union, where she was greeted by hundreds of fans in the chamber, who laughed at every joke and cheered at her biggest points. I am not sure that much was learned from this – her fans will continue to be her fans, and her detractors will continue to be her detractors. The event was just a couple hundred people sitting in a room, hearing someone make the same points they’ve been making for years at this point – yet our media had whipped up enough controversy that the Prime Minister thought it necessary to defend her right to be heard. It’s at times like this where my friends would expect me to make the following comment: was it really that deep?

The answer, my friends, is no.

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

Comment | 9

Authoritarianism might be here to stay

by Jack Arrowsmith

M

onths before the fall of the Berlin Wall, political scientist Francis Fukuyama asked whether the impending conclusion of the Cold War marked the ‘end of history’. According to Fukuyama, Western liberal democracy had emerged as the ‘final form of human government’, such that the ideological evolution of human institutions was at an end.

Since his 1989 essay, Fukuyama has received significant criticism about whether the occurrence of certain global events have disproved his thesis. The 9/11 attacks and the War on Terror, for instance, seemed to usher in a new phase of world history. In fairness to Fukuyama, much of this criticism has come from a misunderstanding of his thesis. He was arguing not that events would stop occurring entirely, but rather that liberal democracy had prevailed as the most effective system of government, such that it would now gradually become universalised throughout the world.

Even if totalitarianism developed again, democracy would become more prevalent in the long term: it had bested all of the available alternatives.

Still, recent events cast doubt even on this idea. Just last week the autocratic President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, successfully won another term in office, giving him five more years in power.

During his time as President, Erdogan has been heavily criticised for supressing freedoms of speech and assembly, as well as excessive use of force. In the state of emergency after the 2016 coup against his government, 118 journalists were remanded in pre-trial detention and 184 media outlets were permanently closed through executive decrees. Istanbul’s Pride march has been banned since 2016 under the guise of security concerns, with multiple attempts at marches being met by rubber bullets and tear gas from police. Erdogan’s government has also been heavily criticised for its treatment of the Kurdish people, including its attacks on the Makhmour refugee camp which is home

to around 12,000 Kurdish refugees, a legacy of the depopulation of Kurdish villages by the Turkish government. With his re-election Erdogan will begin his third term as president, having previously also been Turkey’s prime minister – in total he has been in power for 20 years.

Whilst many may hope that the success of Erdogan’s brand of authoritarianism is an isolated incident, other examples suggest it is a feature, and not a bug, of the international system. In Ukraine, Russia continues to pursue a damaging war of aggression under Cold War values where states exist to be conquered. And whilst the media presentation of the war in Ukraine is often that Russia stands alone against the might of the ‘international community’, in reality this is not the case. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) alliance, for instance, has remained resolute in the face of Western condemnation of Moscow. This group comprises a larger share of global GDP than the Western G7, and makes up 43% of the world’s population. China has pushed for the group to issue its own currency, to rival the dominance of the US dollar. India has resisted Western boycotts and continued to buy cut price Russian oil. South Africa is planning to host Putin at the BRICS summit in the summer, going as far as changing laws to ensure that it doesn’t have to comply with the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court.

This crisis of liberalism extends even to those leaders who have always seemed to be champions of human rights and democracy. Last year’s victory

by Lula over Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s election was welcomed by the West, not least because Bolsonaro’s destruction of the Amazon has been incredibly counterproductive in the fight against climate change.

As a long-time champion of workers’ rights, Lula was a breath of fresh air compared to Bolsonaro’s autocracy. And yet, Lula himself has offered support to Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro, arguing

that it was absurd to label the leader as illegitimate. This is despite the fact that over 60 countries globally declared Venezuela’s 2018 election as fraudulent, whilst EU election monitors found problems ranging from unequal access to the media, through to the government blockage of websites during the campaign. Lula has also made dubious statements on the War in Ukraine, notably choosing to attribute equal blame to the Russian and Ukrainian sides, a position which it must be difficult for Zelensky to sympathise with whilst cities across Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions lie in ruins.

We can see from BRICS, then, how far the practice of and support for authoritarianism can reach. ‘The international community’ is now looking frighteningly small. It feels as though we are moving away from a liberal democratic consensus, to a world where liberal democracy might not be the ‘final form of human government’.

None of this is to say that ‘the west’ is beyond reproach, or somehow removed from authoritarianism entirely. The US Republican Party contains many members who refuse to accept the results of a democratic election: their denial is as bad as Lula’s. However, the authoritarian states that are represented by the likes of Erdogan and BRICS are demonstrating a clear lack of respect for human rights, democratic representation, and the rule of law. If this pool of countries grows, more lives around the world will be put at risk.

Faced with this situation, it is difficult to see where the West should start. Holding autocrats accountable is clearly key. It is crucial that Ukraine is able to expel Russian forces, as a sign to the world that landgrabbing is not tolerated in the 21st century, and a signal to China that it cannot occur in Taiwan. But as the power and scope of the autocracies continues to grow, it will become harder for neutral countries to resist their influence. Whilst it seemed nearly impossible in 1989, the world might yet enter a new phase of history.

The failings of the Doomsday Clock

by Blane Aitchison

C

urrently set at 90 seconds to midnight, the Doomsday Clock has been ticking for over seven decades now.

Since its creation in 1947, this ominous timepiece has measured how far away mankind is from self-destruction, but, in an era where the stakes have never been higher, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Doomsday Clock has lost its relevance and deteriorated into obsolescence.

At its core, the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to a catastrophic event; primarily nuclear war. Originally designed by Martyl Langsdorf for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the clock’s hands are adjusted every year to reflect the perceived level of nuclear threat. Yet, despite its historical significance and the attention it receives from the media, the Doomsday Clock no longer fulfils its intended purpose.

The most obvious problem is that the Doomsday Clock’s methodology completely lacks any semblance of transparency or clarity. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists claims to use a wide range of factors to determine the clock’s setting, including political developments, scientific advancements, and risk perceptions. However, the specific criteria and calculations used to arrive at the particular time on the clock remain wholly shrouded in mystery.

Without a clear understanding of how each new time is being chosen, it becomes difficult to trust the clock’s verdict or to properly understand it.

This then suggests that one of the fundamental flaws of the Doomsday Clock lies in its possible subjectivity. Even though the clock’s time is determined by scientists, they are not free from their own biases and perspectives. This potential subjec-

tivity, especially when paired with our lack of knowledge on how the time on the clock is determined (as well as the possibility that the scientists have missed information that would otherwise have changed their minds n the decided time), diminishes the clock’s credibility, leaving it open to the criticism that it’s actually a tool being used to advance political agendas or other narratives.

Whereas nuclear weapons come from a place of empirical research and rigorous testing (think the Manhattan Project), it is unclear whether or not any comparable objectivity is used when setting the clock.

The most obvious problem is that the Doomsday Clock’s methodology completely lacks any semblance of transparency or clarity.

As a visual aid, the clock also attempts to reduce the very serious threat of nuclear war into a number of seconds or minutes, something which lacks nuance and doesn’t take into account the irrationality and emotion that often enters modern politics. This is not totally incomparable to other methods of quantifying abstract concepts, such as rating pain on a scale from one to ten.

You might know that you’re in more pain than before, but how do you know how much by?

Will a future injury cause you to rethink your placement of previous injuries? What happens if you need to rate something as 6.5 out of 10? Or 11/10?

Furthermore, the Doomsday Clock has become increasingly detached from the reality of global affairs. Its focus on nuclear weapons as the primary threat fails to adequately address the myriad challenges

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

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we face today. The world has evolved massively since the creation of the clock, and the threats we face as a society are far more diverse than back then, with issues such as climate change, cybercrime, and terrorism being more prevalent.

By fixating solely on nuclear weapons, the clock undermines its own relevance and fails to capture the complex problems of the modern world.

The melodrama surrounding the Doomsday Clock has also contributed to its declining relevance. Over the years, the clock’s movements have become sensational headlines that have generated horror among the general public, who can do virtually nothing about the issue themselves. While it is crucial to raise awareness about global risks, the exaggerated and alarmist nature of the clock’s annual setting only serves to cause terror and then eventual desensitization to the potential of nuclear war. When the clock is continuously set close to midnight, it becomes difficult to differentiate between genuine warning and sensationalized fearmongering.

By fixating solely on nuclear weapons, the clock and fails to capture the complex problems of the modern world.

Though the clock does raise awareness of the threat of global disaster fairly well, it does not tell anyone what steps should be taken to manage this.

Admittedly, that isn’t the point of the clock but the lack of tangible or practical impact means the effect of the clock isn’t much different from anyone deciding what the current threat of nuclear war is by themselves.

In an era where accurate and evidence-based information is becoming less readily available, it is essential to critically evaluate the tools we rely upon for evaluating potential issues, and the Doomsday Clock is simply unfit for modern usage; its lack of transparency, subjective nature, outdated focus, and sensationalism have rendered it unsuccessful in today’s complex world.

If we’re going to address the crises of the 21st century, we must seek more comprehensive and objective methods of assessing global risks. The Doomsday Clock, with the inherent flaws of how it’s currently run, is simply not up to this task.

Publish or perish: Why student journalism matters

I

t would be most apt to say I stumbled upon student journalism. In Michaelmas of my first year in Oxford, whilst others were enthusiastically writing opinion articles or applying to be section editor for one of the student papers in Oxford, my evenings were better spent making friends and getting adjusted with life in Oxford.

But once one term had lapsed, I felt like I wasn’t making the most of my Oxford experience by not having gotten involved with an extracurricular activity. Around then I saw people reshare posts about The Oxford Blue being established. “A new voice for a new decade”, it called itself. It sounded exciting and ‘cutting edge’, something my inner American was missing, and a few weeks later I was a fresh faced and wide-eyed News Editor.

My first article was “Magdalen College elects first female president” in Hillary 2020. It was an “easy one”. I had a press release from the College and I just had to paraphrase it a bit, add an image and make sure it fit The Oxford Blue style. Except I was agonizing for hours.

My Google search history consisted of journalism blogs and Wikihow pages on “how to write a news article”. When it was finally published, it was an ecstatic feeling. I remember proudly sharing the link and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Reading it back now is incredibly humbling, because the mistakes are popping off the screen.

Eleven terms of student journalism later, I am back to being a News Editor, after working my way up, down, and around the journalism scene. I’ve been on the staff for all three papers in Oxford, and I founded The Oxford Tab in 2021. In total I’ve authored over a hundred articles and probably edited two or three times that. And I’ve definitely ruffled feathers.

Lots of feathers.

Be it the University, colleges, the Oxford Union, or the SU, student journalism is an independent check to those in power, and that’s why it upsets them. Last year, Former

by Anvee Bhutani

Editor-in-Chief of Varsity Jacob Freedland dubbed student journalism a “middle finger to authority”, and whilst it’s not intended to be provocative for provocativity’s sake, one of its primary functions is to provide public accountability for institutions, campus ones included.

Freedland said to me, “There’s just something amazing about the freedom to mock, ridicule, or report on important figures that would otherwise get a free ride. It’s a cornerstone of student life.”

On that note, what was almost more significant than writing my first article was receiving my first legal threat. In 2021, when I headed The Oxford Blue I was working on an investigation into an illegal party at the Oxford Union under Tier 2 lockdown restrictions. ‘Partygate’ if you will. I worked with over 10 sources from inside the Union over a month-long period and published the story after a long internal battle with other editors and the Editorial Board, who were (rightfully so) worried about a lawsuit.

As soon as we published, as expected, an email landed into the inbox accusing the paper of defamation, asking for an apology to be issued and threatening further legal action should demands not be met. We stood our ground, knowing that we had published information that was factually accurate. Nonetheless, there was a constant fear that senior editors might be personally legally liable.

Since then, the Union and officers within it have sent tens of legal threats and thrown around fabricated defamation accusations under the guise of ‘fact checking’.

And it’s not just the Union.

One of my fellow editors was sent a legal letter from a prominent Oxford college. In this instance, we sent a reply after consulting a mentor of hers who was a former editor of a national paper and no further action was taken, though she was banned from entering that college’s grounds. Another editor was sent a pre-action letter after writing a comment piece about Oxfess.

The University I have to give a certain degree of credit for being more affable than in the past. Gone are the days when Cherwell was banned for publishing an undergraduate sex survey and editors were fined by the proctors for publishing certain stories. Nonetheless, safeguarding their reputation is incredibly important to the University, and they will go far to ensure this takes place. For instance, when I wrote “Oxford University staff guilty of sexual misconduct towards students were allowed to keep working” earlier this year for The Telegraph, the University double checked several times that I’d be including that there was action taken in certain complaints – the staff just weren’t removed.

This is because the impact of student journalism has farreaching consequences. A few months ago, a student journalist who went on to win the Polk prize for his story wrote a story in Stanford’s The Stanford Daily titled “Internal review found ‘falsified data’ in Stanford President’s Alzheimer’s research”. The story was republished in national and international newspapers and led to resignations from within the administration. Former Editorin-Chief of The Oxford Student and incoming Journalism Masters Student at Columbia University Alex Foster said, “There is no better way to hold university institutions, societies, and its governance accountable than student journalism.” And whilst national newspapers sometimes cover University affairs, Pieter Snepvangers from The Tab added, “No one else has the knowledge or contacts student journalists are able to build up.”

But despite its utility, journalism is in mortal peril worldwide. In the past couple months, Buzzfeed news shut down, VICE news scaled back massively, and Galdem magazine has come to an end. In the UK, over 250 newspaper titles have been lost in less than 20 years. Britain now has fewer local papers than at any time since the 18th century.

“Student journalism is a lot like local journalism - really important and often underappreciated,” current The Oxford Student Editor-in-Chief Ayomilekan Adegunwa noted.

The biggest problem, I think, lies with funding. Oxford’s Cherwell is set to lose its decades old office this year due to financial struggle, given it finances itself independently via subscriptions. After COVID-19, over half of the UK’s student newspapers fear closure due to budget cuts and most have had to drastically cut down on their print issues. Oxford’s The Oxford Student has itself had to go down from printing weekly to fortnightly, though we still receive funding from the SU. Snepvangers told me candidly, “I do fear for the future of student journalism. For the past decade, we’ve been able to combat declining print readership with students reading our stories through social media sites and particularly Facebook. As students increasingly move towards TikTok, student journalism will have to adapt to stay relevant among our audience.” The same is unfortunately true of national newspapers such as The Times, who, whilst I was on work placement, were running a workshop for their editors on how to more effectively use social media.

Not only is the student journalism scene in Oxford a microcosm of journalism nationally, it’s also a pipeline. Over 40% of British newspaper columnists are Oxbridge graduates and oftentimes from independent schools, slightly less in editorial staff. Whilst this is a problem it also bestows upon Oxford a great responsibility, to train the journalists of the coming generation and to expand access to those from all backgrounds, especially those from state schools. The Oxford Student’s Head of News Martin Alfonsín Larsen told me, “I got involved with student journalism to improve my writing, ideation and editing skills.”

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Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

of the week

Deputy Editor: Matthew Holland Section Editor: Vedika Rastogi oxstu.profile@gmail.com

In conversation with Simon Kuper

Simon Kuper is a journalist and author, most notable for his work as a sports columnist for the Financial Times.

He has written extensively on class and meritocracy in British society. His infamous book ‘Chums’ was published in 2022 and detailed the Oxford of the ‘80s through a group of Tories who were shaped by their experiences in the Oxford Union.

We spoke to Simon about his columns, writing on social mobility, and particularly about ‘Chums’.

MAL: You’ve spoken about writing on sport from an almost anthropological perspective. What kind of similarities do you find between writing columns on current affairs and writing about Sport?

SK: Chums is anthropological in the sense that I’m there.

Anthropologists have this concept of a ‘participant observer’, where you have to go into that as an outsider, and that’s sort of me in football, and also me at Oxford. I’m not of their world.

I’m there to see them and try to understand their culture in a non-judgmental way. People ask me if I hate Etonians and I don’t at all. I don’t know them for the most part, but I understand that they’re products of where they came from. I’m trying to understand that.

MAL: In a recent column of yours, you reflected that a lot of people are moving back to cities now. And you spoke about a lot of ways for architects to make cities more livable. When COVID happened, I think there was a lot of enthusiasm for a potential new normal. Do you think we’ve actually done that? Or has that been a big, missed opportunity?

SK: One thing that has changed to a significant degree is working from home. The proportion of Americans doing that has shot up, and it’s not going to go back. Office properties have consequently taken a big hit. We have all these central business districts that we need

By Martin Alfonsin Larsen and Matthew Holland

to rebuild.

The other big change and it’s not that advanced in a lot of cities is the move away from the car. So you see that we are progressively moving towards this in Oxford, I’ve seen it coming back to see streets like St Michael’s or Turl Street, which in my day, would have had cars shooting through there.

You have to make it more difficult, not easier. There’s a Kingsley Amis poem which I quoted in the book from the 60s or 70s, about driving into Oxford. Oxford, like Paris, is a city built before the car, so the car doesn’t easily sit in it except on the High Street. It’s one of those cities that is best suited to return to cycling.

MAL: Onto ‘Chums’ now, do you think that something like abolishing private school charitable status, would be an effective way to make admissions more meritocratic at university?

SK: I certainly think they should do that. I was asked to give a talk at Eton recently and I was interested to go just to see it as a social phenomenon, I’ve never been inside Eton before.

In the end, I said no because they wouldn’t even pay my train fare from London and a taxi.

A father of a child at the school said that what I may not understand is that Eton is itself a charity.

But I don’t think that makes the difference, and the difference is being made by Oxford or Cambridge admissions, to change radically. The parents of kids whose children have gone through the private school system must be thinking they worsened their child’s chances of getting into Oxford, because Oxbridge now has these complex algorithms and targets for state school entries. Although Oxbridge is obviously still not fully reflective of UK demographics, it has improved a lot in the last five years, much more than I ever expected, since 2017. And now, it’s about just over 30% private school. This is way higher than the portion of the population that goes to private school, not much higher however than the population of sixth formers at private schools. It’s the lowest in Oxford and Cambridge history. 10 years ago if you were paying for Eton or St Pauls, you were paying for Eton plus Oxford, where that is no longer the case.

MH: Which do you think should be the greater priority of British society: ensuring

more kids from backgrounds like mine, for instance, a state school background, get into Oxford, or reducing the reliance that we have on Oxford graduates in top jobs?

SK: Both, I think. I’m told that in the foreign office for example, your application is University-blind, so they don’t know when you apply which University you went to. And you are not supposed to reveal it. In contrast, the Financial Times graduate trainee schemes used to recruit only people like me who went to Oxford. And now I think they try not to do that. So you can see that the British elite institutions make those reforms.

But it’s difficult when you have these two Universities who obviously have a higher status. In the Private Sector you see that people will take graduates from Oxford over Reading.

MH: How do you respond to the argument that while class socialisation begins at school, it is only fully realised at University?

SK: It’s not the child’s fault. It’s not Boris Johnson’s fault that his upper middle class family very deliberately socialised him into the upper class. I don’t blame anyone from that background and I would like to see

them happy and comfortable, contributing to the UK. It’s not their fault but they should recognise their privilege and try to change the system. People say to me that I’m privileged and I went to Oxford and got many benefits as a result, and I’m not denying that. That still leaves me free to criticise that system.

MH: The Oxford Union has become much more meritocratic in the comparison between what I have experienced and what you describe in ‘Chums’, with people of all socioeconomic backgrounds participating. What do you think the implications for that are?

SK: Maybe we’re moving towards a less fake meritocracy, where there’s more porousness to people of all classes. That’s certainly what I saw with the union during my visit, where there were a wider array of backgrounds than there would have been in my day. You still have the downsides of meritocracy however, as the elites become younger and from different backgrounds, almost more like the French elite.Then those students graduate themselves and they become part of the elite and their children join the Union when they come to Oxford.

MH: So do you think this plays into the argument that meritocracy in itself is a fallacy, in that it perpetuates a system whereby a new eliteis created, as Matthew Goodwin argues for instance?

SK: I’ve become very suspicious of meritocracy, even when meritocracy is constituted early in life and you need institutional zeal. Whether it’s a fair meritocracy, or an unfair one, even a fair meritocracy is very dangerous. I’d much prefer a kind of German, Scandinavian or Australian system where your life is made much more in your 20s and 30s. Because you’ve done well in your job, people think you’re good at what you’re doing. Not what’s the brand on your CV. Full interview available at oxfordstudent.com

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

Profile | 13

Luena Ricardo in conversation with Dr Francesca Lessa “…transnational justice involves the efforts of victims, human rights groups, civil society actors, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and historians to uncover and present evidence in court.”

Dr. Francesca Lessa is an esteemed scholar and Departmental Lecturer in Latin American Studies and Development at the University of Oxford. Dr Lessa’s impressive academic achievements and her latest publication, “The Condor Trials: Transnational Repression and Human Rights in South America” (2022) has received widespread acclaim for its groundbreaking exploration and fresh insights. The book dives deep into South America’s complex web of transnational repression and human rights issues. It was awarded the prestigious 2023 Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America.

During our conversation, Dr Lessa spoke about her experiences as a lecturer and researcher, uncovering the remarkable contributions she’s making in Latin American studies and human rights research.

LR: As a Departmental lecturer in Latin American Studies, how do you engage and inspire students to explore and critically analyse the complex issues surrounding human rights and development in Latin America?

FL: Human rights and international relations are undergoing key transformations in Latin America. These matters intersect as transnational predicaments affect the entire continent and the wider world. Given the nature of these cross-border issues, the traditional approach of individual states addressing their own problems is no longer effective. Cooperation and coordinated action amongst states are critical in addressing the origins and repercussions of these intricate problems.

As a lecturer offering cours-

es on Latin American human rights and Latin American international relations, I endeavour to involve students by focusing on current issues.

Although we delve into the history of human rights and international relations to provide context, I make a concerted effort to incorporate contemporary issues. Students are keen to learn about the world from an academic perspective and to investigate how these issues have been debated within theoretical frameworks. This permits us to unravel the intricate dynamics and consider policy alternatives and strategies.

I utilise a range of methods to stimulate participation. For instance, in addition to regular lectures and classes, I invite Latin American experts to deliver extra seminars. Last year, experts from Mexico and Venezuela offered their perspectives on the drug conflict and the migration crisis, respectively. These topics shed light on the conditions created by authoritarian regimes that violate human rights, exacerbating inequality, poverty, and restricted access to education and employment. Consequently, there has been a significant wave of migration not only from south to north, but also within Latin America itself.

Moreover, I have in the past organised a human rights film festival showcasing films related to the course content.

These films explore everything from the transition from dictatorship to peace and democracy to today’s issues of inequality, poverty, discrimination, gender-based violence, and environmental crises.

The screenings are followed by discussions, which enable students to engage with and scrutinise the dynamics surrounding these pressing issues.

I aspire to create an inter-

active and inclusive learning environment by employing a variety of teaching methods, such as expert seminars and film screenings. These approaches allow students to delve into the complexities of Latin American human rights and development, encouraging critical thinking and fostering discussions that transcend the conventional lecture and seminar format.

LR: Memory and transnational justice are central themes in your work. How do memory initiatives and the pursuit of accountability interact in the context of human rights violations? What impact do they have on societies in Latin America?

FL: Indeed, another challenging question to answer, I would argue that both memory and justice are fundamental, not only to Latin America but more broadly. This is because we know that numerous other countries and regions worldwide are grappling with similar challenges: providing accountability for systematic human rights violations committed during periods of state terror, dictatorship or war, and that are still being committed today. Take Ukraine and Sudan, for example. Regrettably, the news continually gives us more examples indicating that these dynamics haven’t disappeared.

Consequently, the challenge remains: how can societies best grapple with this legacy in a way that doesn’t solely dwell on the past, which, of course, is a crucial step in attempting to comprehend precisely what transpired.

What were the structural and institutional causes that prompted the onset of these extreme periods of violence?

But also, how do we look forward: how can we prevent these types of crimes from be-

ing committed in the future?

Recently, there has been considerable focus on the so-called transformative justice in many publications. This approach attempts to blend transitional justice — in terms of accountability for past crimes — with a look at the issue of structural violence. Sometimes violence is not solely confined to direct cases of disappearances, murder, or abductions, but it also emerges from inequality, poverty, lack of opportunities to study or work, or facing discrimination because of gender, race, or ideology. All these dynamics still create situations in which people’s potential is not fully realised.

This new concept of transformative justice tries to take a closer look at the ground level to understand how different communities perceive justice and what needs to be done to achieve this conception of justice. The aim is not to impose a top-down state policy without actually listening to people and the communities directly suffering. What exactly do they need? How do they want their societies and communities to look?

Transitional justice and memory are critical in this context.

As I said, not only for past crimes — although many countries in Latin America, including Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, are still trying to come to terms with the legacy of their military dictatorships — but also for contemporary human rights violations.

Take Peru, for example, where over the past few months, there have been numerous societal protests and a government response marked by violent repression of the right to protest and free speech. We witness these dynamics unfolding in parallel all the time.

What transitional justice and

”

memory, as academic disciplines, help us to see is an attempt to trace the origins of these contemporary forms of violence. This includes looking back at institutional mechanisms such as the police, the military police, and the way they are trained to respond to protests. Why is violence always the immediate response in cases of protest? Why is the right to protest increasingly criminalised? Why are specific sectors of society marginalised and feel excluded from the societal good?

In Chile, for instance, since the 2019 protests (the so-called social uprising), there have been significant efforts to change the Constitution to make it more inclusive, especially for women, LGBTQ+ groups, and indigenous communities. These efforts attempt to tackle some long-standing structural inequalities and issues dating back centuries, but most recently to the constitution of 1980, enacted during the military regime.

You can see these connections between past and present continually confronting each other, with some critical moments when this confrontation becomes far more acute.

There are no easy solutions.

There has been a lot of backand-forth on the Constitution, and the referendum didn’t pass.

Now, after another vote for a new stage, right-wing groups have achieved a lot of votes.

This result has caused concern among grassroots organisations, fearing that the new constitution might be even more restrictive than the one they currently have.

These are continual processes, and I believe that learning from past experiences can provide some guidance.

Full interview available at oxfordstudent.com

14 | Identity

Identity

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

Deputy Editor: Sami Jalil Section Editors: Farrah Bergstrom, Georgia Ferris, Anna Ashkinazi oxstu.identity@gmail.com

Oxford’s jazz scene Georgia Ferris reviews a jazz performance by ‘The Soundscape Project’

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haracterised by improvisation, syncopated rhythms and a swing feel, jazz has allowed people from across the globe to express themselves fully to the point where it becomes a vital part of their identity. It has been used to create a sense of community and belonging, and is sometimes mistaken for a historic genre when in reality it thrives in the modern scene. Individuals come together to participate in the music, whether that be by playing an instrument in a band, or by simply enjoy-

ing the free and funky music with friends and family. Jazz has the power to evoke strong emotions and inspire creativity, contributing to a sense of purpose and identity.

So that I could fully investigate this idea of identity and selfexpression in Jazz, I attended a Jazz Night with the Oxford Jazz Society at The Mad Hatter, an Alice in Wonderland themed speakeasy cocktail bar in East Oxford. While I am not usually a regular jazz enthusiast, I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I en-

joyed my time there. This was mainly because of the rhythmic and melodic sounds of the up-and-coming student band, The Soundscape Project. With Arya Shafighian on bass, Nicolò Pierini on keys, Esther Ng on drums, Finlay Dove on trumpet and Holly Shearsmith on saxophone, I was easily able to unwind after a long (and strenuous) Prelims study session.

I was transported to a Chick Corea / Chet Baker world of jazz, rhythm, and blues with my Hit-The-Road-Jack drink in hand. The band fused together

contemporary and traditional jazz music, creating a free and melodic atmosphere perfect for a relaxing evening. The band members were clearly both incredibly talented and very passionate about their respective instruments, and this was expressed well through their combined efforts to liven up the

audience members and to ensure a great time for all. Overall, The Soundscape Project put on a groovy performance, which left me inspired and in awe.

I highly recommend seeing them perform live if you get the chance!

Image credit: DangrafArt

“You’re just indecisive” Maya Smith discusses her experience being bisexual and polyamorous

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eople seem to be painfully unaware of the amount of discrimination in every facet of our society. There is so much more than you see in the news, and as a result it can feel like everyone is picking apart the intricacies of your identity with no one to speak up for you but yourself.

I’m bisexual and polyamorous - two words that seem to confuse a lot of people. I know a lot of people like to associate bisexuality (being attracted to the same sex and a different sex) with something like “I’m straight but I would probably be down to kiss someone of the same sex”, or polyamory (dating or being intimate with multiple people at once) as a quick fix for commitment issues or an excuse for cheating.

But these are such massive mis-

conceptions that cause a lot of taboo in society, making it even harder to come to terms with your own identity. My experience of both is completely embodying, and they are a key part of my identity and the way I experience intimacy. I’m not just an indecisive person: I am someone who feels they can be intimate with multiple people of any sex. I think that if I want to experience the world in this way (causing no harm to others and only being involved in healthy, consensual relationships), it should be respected.

I don’t really have a very specific story of coming out, but I do vividly remember a moment in high school where I realised the weight of discrimination I’d have to carry. I was in a changing room after PE at a majority Muslim school, and I had a

crush on my best friend (who was the same sex as me). There was this little part of me that hoped she might in some universe feel the same way, so I asked her if she was straight. As expected, she said yes, and then asked me the same question.

Next thing you know, I’m surrounded by a crowd of people interrogating me.

is it really your business who I have sex with?

They all asked how I could possibly be bi and Muslim at the same time. I was questioning my faith during this period, but regardless that should in no way have invalidated my sexuality. Being gawked at like a zoo animal because of who I was attracted to made me realise that not every environment is safe to be out in, and that is something that needs

to change.

My experience of polyamory was slightly different, as I only truly discovered it when I started properly exploring my sexual desires. As most people do, I had this default setting of monogamy and ended up in a lot of monogamous relationships - which worked out perfectly fine, but never really felt right. I found out about polyamory on the internet, and it was something I wanted to explore for a very long time. Once I did start exploring it, I realised that I am naturally a very intimate person who enjoys sharing that with multiple people, and it took me a long time to stop feeling judged for that.

Polyamory is not an excuse for having commitment issues or cheating. Equally, bisexuality is no less valid than any other sexuality. It’s a way of experiencing the world, and it in no way forces anyone else to do the same. Everyone has

an individual identity, and no one should feel threatened by the prospect of something that differs to them. The very small minority of people who abuse these terms should not colour the way we see people who truly identify with them, and if people are leading healthy lifestyles, there is no harm in exploring an alternative love life to what we consider traditional.

I’m not just an indecisive person Making the effort to learn about and understand other people’s identities is a key factor as we learn to combat discrimination. If it’s not harming anyone, nor affecting or oppressing your own life, then is it really your business who I have sex with?

Image credit: Maya Smith

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

Deputy Editor: Blane Aitchison Section Editor: Daisy Outram oxstu.pink@gmail.com

Pink

Pink | 15

Why We Still Need Pride

Daisy Outram

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ride is something we talk about every year, but I feel I’ve seen increasing negativity towards the month.

Maybe it’s because I’m a chronically online student journalist, but seeing people harass student activists online and turn on companies promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion seems to send a message of decreasing acceptance. If anything, it shows why the celebration is needed now more than ever.

The UK first celebrated Pride in 1972 to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots, which stood up to police raids of gay and lesbian bars in New York. This uprising inspired the formation of branches of the Gay Liberation Front internationally, including the London branch which first met in 1970. They were key in organising the 1972 march, with around 2,000 attendees.

Last year’s event, 50 years after its first, had over a million.

Legal advances accompany this social progress, from the Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalising homosexuality to the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013 allowing same-sex couples to get married. Trans people were also granted full legal recognition of their gender in the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

These basic rights boosted the UK’s position in the annual Rainbow Map, which records how LGBTQ-friendly European countries are. Up until 2015, the UK was considered the best in Europe, but has dropped to 17th this year. Such a downfall is rooted in increasing hate crime figures, the failure to ban conversion therapy, and antitrans rhetoric.

“Up until 2015, the UK was considered the best in Europe, but has dropped to 17th this year.”

Oxford has recently been the centre of the media’s anti-trans narrative during the protests at the Union opposing Dr Kathleen Stock’s invitation. As a gender-critical lesbian and trustee of the LGB Alliance, Stock represents what I see as the unfortunate fracturing of the LGBTQ+ community in this toxic ‘debate’. Whether the split is generational or ideological, the lack of unity loses the core values of the LGBTQ+ movement.

Being at the protests was what sealed how I felt towards the controversy: trans joy conquers any theoretical debate.

Pride is not about a philosophical conclusion to the meaning

of human existence, it’s about the rights of a marginalised group. Hosting a debate on the identity of a group of people is humiliating, with Stock maintaining that it is fiction to claim “transwomen are women”.

Before you accuse me of putting “free speech in peril” as The Telegraph would, I do appreciate the need for discussion in this area. The panel “Between Free Speech and Hate Speech” hosted by the OULGBTQ+ society raised how Trans+ Pride protests actually increased the profile of the dialogue. Dr Clara Baker asked of the backlash “Is it that you want debate or discussion, or that you’re not getting the answers that you want?”.

The recent Oriel speaker event “Conflicting compassion: diversity in gender and sexuality in the modern world” featuring Abigail Thorn from Philosophy Tube and the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft exemplified what this conversation should be. Topics of how faith, sport, and other aspects of community can adjust to the LGBTQ+ were had with kindness and respect.

Thorn also raised how when the community faces injustice, attackers don’t stop to ask “what letter people fit under”.

She expressed it’s better “to bring it back to material conditions”, living in the UK where trans people still lack access to

gender-affirming care among other injustices. The event left me with the hope that unity for change is possible.

“Another typically toxic element of Pride month is of course rainbow washing, where companies and brands that use LGBTQ+ symbolism without providing real support for the community.”

Another typically toxic element of Pride month is of course rainbow washing, where companies and brands that use LGBTQ+ symbolism without providing real support for the community. This is typically criticised by activists for its superficial nature, appearing as a mere “money grab” using the language and imagery of genuine struggle.

This year the discourse has appeared quite differently, however, as particularly in the US brands have faced significant backlash. Target in particular withdrew its Pride merchandise following harassment against employees. Abandoning even the superficial display

of allyship foreshadows even deeper division and discrimination.

In the UK, anti-trans campaigners have recently called out CBeebies for a segment on how some fish can change gender. This was in spite of no mention of trans people, but the BBC stood by the piece under its “Everyone’s Welcome” ethos. Even a British Library tweet on similar fish faced such backlash that the thread was deleted.

Culture wars are not what the LGBTQ+ community needs to fight, but they form part of a country’s psyche. Within this narrative, queer people still face real-life negative impacts from oppositional compaigns.

Scotland’s Gender Recognition Bill was blocked by the UK government, US legislatures are passing hundreds of anti-LGBT laws, and 70% of trans people are impacted by transphobia in accessing health services.

Pride is still about celebration in the face of social, cultural, and legal adversity. The value of human dignity remains the same as it was in 1972, and should be fought for with the same passion as those revolutionary roots.

Image Credit: Blane Aitchison

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16 | Column

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

Behind the BNOC with Amanda Li Babbling with Becky

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or my last column interview, it was a lovely sunny day right before our JCR guest night formal, and I had sat on my blanket for the past three hours trying to finish an essay before remembering I had an interview. Luckily, my interviewee was not only a sunshiney personality, but equally as in love with the sun, so we sat down on BNC New Quad to have a chat surrounded by the sounds of croquet and parents.

Oxford is often romanticized in movies and books, and with the rise of social media, the large number of accounts covering life at Oxford has thousands of followers, many of whom are people hoping to spend just a bit of time in the “city of dreaming spires.” Becky posts one photo every day on her Instagram account, @observingoxford, trying to highlight the small parts of Oxford life.

Becky is no stranger to life at Oxford.

She did her undergrad at Worcester, where she is now doing her PhD. She also did a Master’s at Cambridge, taking time off to help run her family’s business during COVID. When she returned to Cambridge in 2020, she realized that work-life balance could be hard to strike in such an intense academic environment. “It sometimes felt like there was no room to do anything but exist day to day, and it is so easy to forget just where

you are…I said, ‘I need to take this in more.’” So, Becky did just that: using her interest in photography to make an account that allowed her to do something outside of her degree, focusing on the little, often-overlooked parts of Oxford.

Becky’s search for a daily picture took her to different colleges, making the “city come alive.” I noted the focus on surroundings and architecture in many of her posts—it seemed like the photos were less curated and more of a snapshot as Becky went about her day. She confirmed that “it was meant to be a photo diary”, saying that “what I love about my account is that every day I’m forced to take the time to look for something beautiful.” With videos covering things from formals to scenes studying at different colleges and libraries, we see a view of Oxford that feels quite serene.

Becky says she gets many messages from prospective applicants thanking her for the role that the account played in encouraging them to apply to Oxbridge. She says that it is one of her favourite parts about running the account, especially when she also initially felt Oxford was almost unattainable. When applying to do her undergrad, she was told that she had a 2% chance of getting in. Her low expectations let her truly enjoy being at Oxford for the sake of being there, not for the sake of attending university. I was one of those applicants; when I got in, her account was one of the reassurances that I would be going to a large university with many things to do (and some very pretty spring flowers!)

By both romanticizing the place and

emphasizing how accessible it really is, the account has certainly brought a positive impact on the way Oxford is portrayed. Being able to share aspects of Oxford demystifies it a lot, which we agreed was absolutely necessary to improve diversity. “When you tour the city of Oxford, it’s just walls. You often don’t get a chance to see it from the inside.

Posting snippets from life as a student hopefully makes it more accessible in peoples’ minds”. Becky emphasizes that helping to give people the “belief that they can go for it” is something that gives her huge joy, and she has started mentoring for a summer mentorship program.

Yet with the benefits the account brings to future prospective applicants, there is a downside. Becky prides herself on being honest towards the Oxford experience. At times the large audience of her account, many of whom don’t study at Oxford and will likely not have the chance to do so, has put some pressure on her to appreciate everything and not mention the more challenging parts.

“It’s a difficult balance to strike… people will say, ‘You’re lucky to be in that position, I would do anything to be there.’

And you’ll feel guilty because they’re right, but I also don’t want people to feel like they’re lesser because their entire Oxford experience wasn’t necessarily all sunshine and rainbows.” Everyone struggles at times and Oxford challenges even the most prepared student.

I asked how different the Oxford experience was as a postgrad; it feels like the postgrad-undergrad divide was much larger than it should be considering how they both share col-

leges. In response, she says that time as a postgrad makes Oxford feel more like a home this time as she lives here throughout the year. She quips, “It’s like having a job. It’s probably less immediate pressure overall, and I definitely don’t miss exam season!” Becky feels that although it can be trickier to meet new people, there is more of a worklife balance: she can take weekends off now and mainly spends them exploring the city. “Oxford really comes alive when the undergrads are here,” she said.

All in all, our two hours on the grass gave me a newfound appreciation for both Oxford and the way Becky tries to portray it. It was a wonderful way not only to appreciate my last interview of the term, but also of where I am and how I can enjoy even walking outside.

As I go into a panic studying for exams, the fact that we’ve somehow made it to such an important and beautiful school has certainly made it easier to parse my degree, and the fact that kind people like Becky are documenting it to show others is truly heart-warming.

Amanda Li

Columns Columns

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

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What style should you try based on your college?

veryone at Oxford knows that every college has its own unique vibe, so why not try to embody that vibe in your personal style? Here are my suggestions on how to dress like the vibe of your college.

Christ Church - Tweed Tweed is an obvious choice for an old and slightly obnoxious college. Though brown and green tweeds have been around forever, Chanel popularised coloured tweeds in blue and pink, including the pink suit and hat worn by Jackie Kennedy when she visited Texas with JFK. Why not add a tweed blazer or a hat to your next outfit for a historical feel?

Keble – Sporty Probably one of the sportier colleges out there, Keble is the perfect place to indulge in the latest activewear revival. Vogue has reported extensively about sportswear trends, and brand Nowhere FC bases its designs around a fictional football team. Why not try wearing something related to your favourite sport of player, or wear something in the colours of your college for a fun, patriotic twist.

Magdalen – Florals Florals? For the Deer Park?

Groundbreaking.

Florals have basically never gone out of style, appearing on runways more or less since fashion started. A big floral dress is always an amazing look at a summer ball, but floral shirts and blouses can also brighten up a cold winter’s day.

Pembroke – Denim Denim is perfect for a fun and trendy college. Often reviled by the media, double denim can be a real statement if pulled off correctly (think Britney and Justin’s incredible matching outfits for the 2001 American Mu-

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Columns | 17

The Book Stop

t is now Sunday of Week 7 and only two weeks and five days remain until the end of exams (I’m eagerly counting down the hours, to the extent that I have a countdown on my phone, until 5:30pm on Friday 23rd of Univ – Y2K June). Unfortunately, this also means Probably the biggest macrotrend ever, that it’s the last column of this series, the Y2K revival has brought back dozens and the final bookshop I will review. of 90s trends, including low-rise jeans, velour tracksuits, and tiny sunglasses. Quite fittingly, coming full circle, I visThese are perfect for channelling your ited a shop owned by the same company inner early 2000s chick-flick persona. who run ‘The Last Bookshop’ as my ‘last’ Just don’t try to make fetch happen. bookshop (the pun simply had to return, sorry) – I visited ‘The Book Stop’ on Magdalen Street, which is owned by the Hertford – Animal Print same company: ‘Bill and Ben Books’. I always pass by it on my way into town Often thought of as cheap and tacky, animal print has made a resurgence in re- but have always been in too much of a cent years despite the fashion industry rush to actually visit, most likely beturning away from using fur, hides, and cause I’m running late to something leather. In her book ‘Leopard is a Neu- after underestimating how long it takes tral’, Erica Davies describes how you to get to any central college from OX2. can easily base a whole outfit around bold animal prints, and The Devil The storefront is deceptively small and Wears Prada also features animal print was almost obscured by the giant queue in a photoshoot called Urban Jungle. of tourists waiting for the National Express (I was very tempted to join them and get on any bus which would take Trinity – Spots me far away from Exam Schools). Inside, A whimsical pattern for a relatively se- however, is an eclectic selection of books rious college, spots have suddenly burst in quite a sizeable room, all under £5 (!) back onto the fashion scene, with Vogue of almost every genre, including a selecrecently reporting on how polka dots tion of classics which were all only £3.99. are taking over street style. A spotty cocktail dress is perfect for a fun night at There is also a basement area downFreud, while a polka dot blouse or shirt stairs which contains children’s books, can add some fun to a boring lecture. cooking books, poetry and biographies. sic Awards). Like Britney, try pairing denim with silver accessories and an embellished belt for a cool Y2K feel.

I perused over the extensive collection for quite some time, partly because I Maximalism has been a massive trend didn’t want to go to the library yet, but lately, so why not go against Coco mostly because there were a lot of interChanel’s “before you leave the house… esting titles which I was tempted to add take one thing off” rule, and go wild to my summer reading list on top of the with hordes necklaces, earrings, brace- lists which my tutors are about to give lets and rings? The louder and more me, which I refuse to think about for now. distracting your outfit, the better!

After finishing ‘Peep Show’ the day before (I’m still not sure how I managed to watch all nine seasons within a single month), David Mitchell’s book, ‘Dishonesty is the SecondQueen’s – Over Accessorising

Blane Aitchison

Best Policy and Other Rules to Live By’ caught my eye in the media and TV section. I didn’t buy it in the end, though, as I was more drawn towards Rowan Hisayo Buchanan’s ‘Starling Days’, perhaps to some extent because the protagonist is a classicist, but also because the writing is incredible.

All of the bookshops I’ve visited this term have been so charming and unique in their own ways – I’ll definitely be revisiting them next year, whether to buy more books that I won’t have time to read during term time, or to study in ones which have outdoor seating areas or cafés, like ‘The Last Bookshop’ and ‘Gulp Fiction’. I hope they all continue to thrive and defy the pessimism about the future of independent bookshops which was the inspiration behind the name of ‘The Last Bookshop’.

I can’t wait to read for pleasure again after exams, maybe as a break before tackling my reading lists.

I’ve resolved to read at least all the books I’ve bought this term, as well as the pile of books I bought last summer, naïvely thinking that I’d have time to read them in my free time at university.

Tasneem Jodiyawalla

ssnnm muullooC C

18 | Columns

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

Eastern European Expeditions:

S

o yes, after the vague disappointment of the ‘party destinations’ of Split and Hvar, a more cultural excursion was on the cards. To Mostar we went. The coach journey was another special one.

Initially, heading south down the Dalmatian Coast with the sun setting over my shoulder, the views were stupendous over the Med, and later, heading inland towards the border crossing into Bosnia, the views were stupendous over the Neretva river valley. It was one of those days when the sunset just decides to be spectacular, and the reflective power of the waters took it up to another level.

We arrived in Mostar under the cover of darkness and eventually made it to the hostel, tucked surreptitiously away on a tight back street. Our host, an old Bosnian lady by the name of Majdas, presented us with some much-needed soup and showed us round what in effect was just her house with a couple of dorms on the second floor.

Nicely settled, we headed off into town for some more dinner with a classic group of hostel randos. Mostar is a small city, so within twenty minutes of trying to find somewhere for food that balanced affordability and quality, we had already seen the world-famous bridge and a couple of charming mosques.

During the search for dinner, the boys spotted a pool bar, which of course later supplied the evening’s entertainment.

The next day we booked onto a tour with Majdas’ son, figuring that with only two nights there, it’d be the best way to see everything in our limited time.

The tour began around the hostel’s local area, which included Musala Square, once the focal point of Mostar’s Bosniak community. On the Square two particularly notable buildings stick out: the first is a glass and concrete modernist building, once serving as a residence to Josip Tito, although now there’s just a very normal café on the ground floor while the upper stories re-

Mostar’s Unhealed Wounds

main deserted; and the second is the ruins of the Hotel Neretva, once Mostar’s most prestigious hotel, now a skeleton on the banks of its namesake.

However, it is when you cross to the west side of the Neretva that the duality of Mostar becomes depressingly clear.

About 100 metres west of the river was the frontline during the second siege of Mostar, where the Bosnian Croats, formerly having defended Mostar against the Bosnian Serbs alongside the Bosniaks in 1992, laid a brutal yearlong blockade on their ex-allies in East Mostar. The majority of buildings leading up to and around the frontline (now a main road) remain derelict, if still standing at all, graffiti dancing over their innumerable bullet holes.

The place also plays host to the most striking juxtaposition I’ve ever seen. On one side of Spanjolski Trg (Spanish Square) is a brand new school building, bright orange and clean as a whistle, where ethnically Croat children and ethnically Bosniak children are taught on different floors. Directly opposite is Mostar’s ‘Sniper Tower’, a former bank, once cloaked in glass windows, which now resembles a particularly imposing, triangular multi-storey car park. It was from here that the Croatian Defence Council would fire indiscriminately on Bosniak civilians over the frontline, and even take payment from international criminals who wished to do the same.

Such juxtapositions tell the story of Mostar today. The east side, where the majority of the population are Bosniak Muslims, is still filled with ruined buildings at every turn of its narrow streets, whereas on the west side, mainly housing Croat Catholics: sparkling new buildings, wide boulevards and roundabouts, banks, shopping malls, schools, not a scar of the war in sight. A personal observation that illustrated the difference most poignantly to

me was the style of election posters. On the east side, small A4 manifestoes were printed out and stapled to lampposts.

On the west side, huge billboards lined the main roads, each with a different HDK (Croat nationalist party) candidate frowning down at you.

The city now operates on a system akin to apartheid. Although the population was far less physically divided before the war, the rise in ethnic tensions in its wake has led to the current situation. The Croat side is more populous, and as such the local government is controlled by the secessionist HDK, who in turn direct the majority of non-embezzled public funds into the Croat side that elected them. While the Croat side flourishes with the recent completion of a new mall and some university buildings (for the Croat-speaking University of Mostar), the older Bosnian side struggles, not even equipped to repair or redevelop bombed out buildings that have stood for 30 years.

The ethnic divide in Mostar is by no means cooling down either. I was informed that three days before my arrival a memorial cemetery in the city, which commemorated Yugoslavia’s victory over the Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia, had recently been defaced. Gravestones had been smashed, swastikas welcomed you at the entrance, as did other symbols representing the Ustase, a former Croatian fascist group that had committed genocide against both the Jews and the Serbs in the latter stages of the Second World War. The same Ustase symbols were later pointed out to us on the side of a Bosnian-language nursery school.

Mostar, as indeed much else of Bosnia, still readily bears the scars of its past. On the east side, a bullet hole or shrapnel mark is always close by, the memories of the horrors of the 90s are still fresh. Yet despite

the current challenges that the people face, it was one of the friendliest, most welcoming cities I visited. Mostar’s Old Bridge, destroyed by the Croatian Defence Council in 1994, is now beautifully restored, and gazing from the banks of the Neretva up at its iconic arches, lit up by the summer sun, one could not help but feel that maybe hope does still exist.

Aside from the sombre tour of modern Mostar and its brutal division, we also saw the beauty that the area also has to offer.

The Kravica waterfalls are gor-

geous, but the hillside town of Pocitelj blew me out of the water. Although I had only spent two days in Bosnia, my need to return was easily cemented.

A country, not only abounding in natural and historic beauty, but also in powerful stories that deserve to be shared. In a bit.

Jonah Poulard

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

OXYOU

OxYou | 19

Deputy Editor: Niall Hall Section Editors: Milo Dennison, Lukas Seifert

Westminster WhatsApp leaked (again)

by Niall Hall

Another WhatsApp group has been leaked. This chat - Whine and Cheese - discussed Oxford’s admissions data for the 2022 cohort.

“Boys, have you seen?”

“You should retrain.”

mar schools yet.”

“Pov next job in cyber.”

“Oh no, they’re added to state school numbers to make it look better.”

“No, it’s like two applicants per place.”

“Love Island start?”

“Excluding the ones reserved to be bought?”

“Oxford Admissions Data.”

“Must be. They’ll have to scrap it soon.”

“Nerd.”

“Shut up @AlexanderBorisdePfeffelJohnson.”

“Learn that the triangle isn’t just an instrument.”

“I mean fairs, they don’t pay.”

“They so wish they could though.”

“BTEC private school.”

“What’s the difference between them and state school then? And what is BTEC?”

“Give us a rundown.”

“How are private school numbers?”

“There’s finally Asian representation.”

“28 of 29 colleges don’t reflect the UK average.”

“What’s the percentage?”

“What, are they better?”

“Just one Islander I think.”

“No.”

“Means they can’t afford to bribe entry though.”

“Not Love Island Liz.”

“About a third come from independent schools.”

“Just work harder lmao.”

*@LizTheRizz has been removed.

“Oh surely that’s close.”

“Number of Oxford applicants has gone down.”

“No, only seven per cent of UK attend private school.”

“Too busy Netflixing their ChatBGT.”

“How tf do you know that?”

“They select based off intellect. BTECs do the opposite.”

“Won’t mean much for Oxford admissions.”

“What are regional divides?”

“A myth.”

“Yeah like 2% from North East.”

couldn’t be understood in interviews.”

“What about South East?”

“20%.”

“And there’s no signal in Wales so how could they even get on UCAS.”

“The North was 15% in total.”

“It makes sense that the South prevails.”

“So more people from the South-East than the whole of the North?”

“It’s where all the investment is.”

“God, they must be thick.”

“Can’t see past all the Greggs crumbs. Or the coal.”

“Literally. What subject would they even study?”

“Whatever the Access schemes are churning out.”

“And the smart Eton boys.”

“Think you just mean the Eton boys there.”

“Get wrecked @SendToAll.” “How much did the South make up then?”

“58% in total.”

“Least Classics is safe.”

“Less travel, less pollution.”

“It’s all nonsense anyway when there is a really nice part of the North.”

“Bet you won’t find that in the Guardian.”

“No I was joking.”

“They’ll just say London’s per cent of students admitted was higher than that of their applicants.”

“Sucks to be Northern.”

“Well it is true.”

“Aimed @MattHancockandballs.”

“*Northern Irish. They made up less than one percent.”

“I know people though, we can get a different angle.”

“Literally.”

“Not our fault you can’t spell.”

“Cheshire?”

“Computer science was the most competitive tbf.”

“I have friends who are working class. Well, not working class.”

“Yeah, don’t let any nieces apply for that aha.”

“What’s the state school figure?”

“That’s not because he’s Northern though.”

“You can trust them to kick off about that.”

“Ooh, he knows people.”

“Stick to Theology.”

“The remaining two thirds you fool.”

“It said the North made up some of the admissions.”

“They’re not fair comparisons though.”

“Idk, you hadn’t said gram-

“Some?”

“The Scottish probably

*Disclaimer: We apologise for using the full name of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

“What did they say about music?”

The Oxford Student would like to apologise for any offence caused by inappropriate comments made about the OUCA President in the last print edition’s Sunday Roast.

BEST OF THE ROAST

Rordon Gamsay

R

ordon is late because he had better things to do.

Not really, the website went down even though you didn’t notice. He used this extra day to apply for editor-inchief next term so keep an eye on Cherwell socials. Rordon was then forced (by no one) to recount his roasts in the JCR general meeting. Many people laughed meaning if you’re not happy with this week’s roasts, you’re wrong.

Please stay healthy amongst this week’s slightly cold roast.

OxYou doesn’t need suing in

week seven, or ever.

HANG IN THERE Tuesday was a big day for student journalists, actual journalists and GB News.

They rushed down to Oxford because, amongst ongoing crises, a group of students sang Rihanna in the street.

National news! They found a student gluing their hand to the floor. What they did not find, however, was the student glued to the ceiling.

The police either removed the protester from the floor or mimed to We Found Love, and none of them actually looked

up. None of the attendees noticed either, and Rordon blames this on people looking at their phone to see if they’d made the news. Up there lay a cross-legged protestor in a white tee, feeling like the Christmas ornament that’s about to fall off the tree. They never did though, and maybe that’s why OxYou is the first to report on it. A possible explanation is that the Union now have a mirrored ceiling, like that of Atik’s cheesy floor, which showed a reflection.

Another is that it didn’t happen.

CLOC STRIKES 0 The Justice League of OxBridge nerds have assembled, with their strongly-worded report leaving colleges cowering.

With it came the shocking revelation that those in power don’t care about the environment. The top two colleges were St Antony’s and Kellogg, revealing an indirectly proportional relationship between relevancy and sustainability. In third came John’s, proving that you can buy environmental clout after all. Somehow Hugh’s and Oriel scored 0 out of 100 but, according to CLOC, the

highest performing colleges have publicly available sustainability documents.

In response, Oriel’s JCR president argued his college’s pitiful ranking was because their sustainability documents are - like all the best schools - private. Rordon empathises with their reluctance to cut ties with fossil fuel companies but, like any toxic relationship, sometimes you just have to move to greener pastures.

Time is ticking, arms are folding and if colleges don’t make a change, they’re sure to get CLOC’ed.

20 | Features

Features

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

Deputy Editor: Frankie Coy Section Editors: Haochen Wang, Grace Rees, Purav Menon features@oxfordstudent.com

Just Stop Oil: The Debate H eadlines detailing damage to precious artworks, disruptions to events, and road closures have plagued the news recently. Direct action to combat the climate crisis has become part and parcel of Britain’s landscape and a common method to evoke change. Such direct action is not foreign to the British public, from the protests of the Suffragettes to sitins and road blockages carried out by Extinction Rebellion, but the scale and damage of Just Stop Oil’s recent protests may seem unprecedented. Unlike Extinction Rebellion, whose aims are targeted at general environmental improvement and protection, Just Stop Oil is more explicit in its demands.

They want the government to commit to halting new fossil fuel licensing and production, most notably its plans to licence more than 100 new oil and gas projects by 2050.

The political climate has also changed dramatically since Extinction Rebellion was first founded in 2018. In the last 5 years, the general public, and consequently politicians, have become increasingly aware of the climate crisis we are facing, with many becoming more committed to easing its effects.

However, this awareness has also been met by a growing sense of urgency and climate anxiety, which in turn has led to a scaling up of protests’ nature: the sight of a road blockade or protesters glueing themselves to trains is no longer a sensationalised novelty. Due to the evolving nature that Just Stop Oil protests are taking, the movement is losing public support: a YouGov survey of 1,700 adults conducted during the peak of the group’s action in October 2022, showed that the majority of the general public was opposed to the group’s actions. Met with a declining climate in urgent need of political reform, and a seemingly apathetic public, Just Stop Oil faces two major challenges; how to remain relevant, and how to engender actual change in an unwavering government?

Recently the climate activist Phoebe Plummer from Just

Stop Oil was invited to the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Oxford. Plummer rose to prominence in October 2022 when she, along with other activists, threw soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in London’s National Gallery.

Plummer reasoned after the protest that “The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis, fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup.” Just Stop Oil undeniably gained public attention through this memorable act, however they did so by provoking large-scale anger.

No lasting damage was done to the Van Gogh, but the image of tomato soup plastered over a priceless and irreplaceable piece of artwork had had its impact. The general opinion after the event expressed anger towards the protesters, but to the protestors, the sacrifice was necessary, and an easy one to make. Plummer stated after the action: With this rationale, one can surely be sympathetic to the cause? James Skeet, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, expressed this exact opinion in an interview to the Cherwell newspaper: “History has shown time and time again that disruptive civil tactics are a large component of what brings about change…most of the rights we enjoy today didn’t come about through polite asking but through people mak-

ing the nuisance of themselves and demanding change.” But as understandable as the reasoning may be, are they actually effective?

If we are to take their aim to be gaining momentum and change in the UK’s oil policies, these methods have proven to be unsuccessful: according to a YouGov survey, just 21% of respondents said they supported the protester’s actions, compared with 64% who opposed them. Furthermore, some of Just Stop Oils’ tactics are illegal; take the Van Gough protest for example, which did constitute vandalism. Between 1 October 2022 and 14 December 2022, the Metropolitan Police made over 750 arrests relating to Just Stop Oil protests. This alone cost the taxpayer over £7.5 million, and the total cost of policing Just Stop Oil protests is now over £14.5 million. This

is the case for most large-scale protests, with the Extinction Rebellion protest in October 2019 requiring over 418,000 hours of police work. In 2021, at least 18 environmental protesters from Insulate Britain faced time in prison for their peaceful protests. It was these increased costs and the diversion of police from local communities that motivated the government to enact the Public Order Bill in May 2023.

Just Stop Oil’s reasoning holds - we are facing a global climate crisis, one with catastrophic impacts, and Just Stop Oil are forcing this into the headlines, against the cries of many attempting to deny or belittle it.

Just Stop Oil, as of December 2022, has over 1,000 active protesters prepared to be arrested for their cause. Placing their civil liberties on the line for the cause powerfully alerts us to the need for urgent, meaningful change. The oil industry knew at least 50 years ago that air pollution from burning fossil fuels posed serious risks to human health. But unless we reduce emissions rapidly, the world is likely to exceed 2°C of warming, the critical temperature according to the IPCC. Almost 60% of oil and gas reserves and 90% of coal must remain in the ground to keep global warming below 1.5°C, scientists say. For these reasons, the 1.5C limit is at the heart of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which bound countries to hold global temperature rises “well below 2C” and “pursuing efforts” to 1.5C.

Frankie Coy & Grace Rees

However, at this rate, by the end of this century, warming could potentially reach 4°C, possibly more. This would have disastrous consequences, such as the meltingof polar ice and subsequent rising sea levels.

Ice in the Arctic is already 65% thinner than it was in 1975, and the MET Office states that if we do not reduce emissions soon, we could see ice-free summers in the Arctic by the middle of this century. 39 per cent of the global population live within 100 kilometres from a shoreline, placing them at serious risk of flooding if sea levels continue to rise.

Without climate action, the damage will be immeasurable, and all that we hold dear may fail to exist - this message has increasingly resonated with the population. Slowly, the movement is gaining traction, even if their methods remain controversial.

History often looks sympathetically on those who risk great sacrifice for progress. The Suffragettes orchestrated an arson and bombing campaign between 1912 and 1914 resulting in many injuries, damage, and even deaths; in Dundee four postmen were severely injured as a result of phosphorus chemicals left in post boxes by Suffragettes. What the Suffragettes fought for is now considered an unalienable right to much of the UK population, and perhaps future generations will reflect similarly on the acts of Just Stop Oil. Maybe only time will tell who is on the right side of history?

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

Features | 21

Why is it so hard to walk around Oxford?

Eleanor Luxton

L

ots of Oxford students spend more time cycling, rowing or Voi-ing around the city than walking. But if you’re a woman, or from a socio-economically deprived background, then your experiences of getting around the city are likely to be markedly different and more dangerous.

After being sworn at and almost run over at crossings, I wanted to investigate what’s being done to protect pedestrians in Oxford.

The March 2021 census showed that 21.6% of commuters in Oxford travel by foot.

Whilst this figure may have been skewed by lockdown, it still outstrips the 7.6% of people across England and Wales who walk to work regularly. Oxford is known, amongst other things, for being a great walking city, with the ghost tours and the Uncomfortable Oxford initiative favourites amongst students and tourists alike.

The Oxford Student surveyed 89 Oxford residents about their experiences of walking in Oxford. Although over 55% of respondents feel very safe walking during daylight hours in the city (a nine or ten on our scale), 20% of respondents have been pushed into a cycle lane or the road by fellow pedestrians.

Over half of respondents reported cyclists refusing to stop at pedestrian crossings, pedestrians cutting in front of them and pedestrians failing to move out of the way on pavements.

This suggests that, even in what isd too - the roundabout opposite the King’s Arms, cyclists on Cornmarket, slow tourists and the volume of buses on the High Street. For me, the traffic lights at the end of Longwall Street and crossing on St Clements have proven to be particularly dangerous.

I wanted to see if these anec-

dotes were substantiated, so approached several councillors and Oxfordshire locals for comment. I shared how, from mine and my friends’ experiences, it seemed to be our gender as women that affected our walks.

Councillor Louise Upton, who worked on the Safer Streets measures to improve women’s safety at night, said that the city council’s antisocial behaviour team is hoping to receive funding to go into schools and speak to boys about their attitudes towards women and girls.

Nina Sarpong, who runs independent sports retailer Runwize and set up a running group for women last year, said that she has been affected by the expectation that runners move off the pavement and put themselves in potential danger. East Oxford MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds agreed that “pedestrian safety must of course be a priority for this city”. She invited me to a surgery to discuss this issue further, although her team is yet to make contact.

Green party Councillor Emily Kerr also replied, citing an occasion when a male cyclist demanded that she say “thank you” for him stopping at a pedestrian crossing. We agreed to meet.

Kerr has been a vocal supporter for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) and active travel. She has found that men only tend to approach her to complain about the difficulties of walking around Oxford after they had children. This is a time when men and women alike are likely to be hypervigilant to road safety, and Oxfordshire County Council’s “Park and Stride” initiative is aiming to make the school run less anxiety-inducing.

Kerr was also emphatic about

the impact of reducing cars on Oxford’s poorest residents, particularly the 26% of children in the city who live below the poverty line. For many, walking is a necessity intimately tied up with poverty. Oxford is the second least equal city in the UK in terms of income inequality, meaning that the socio-economic divide between drivers and walkers can be vast. Oxford is also the least affordable city in the UK, which has pushed lower-income families out of the city centre, forcing them to become increasingly reliant on walking and public transport.

So whilst walking isn’t mentioned much in Oxford city council’s strategy for 20202024, ensuring that it is easy to get around on foot would massively impact the daily life of not just students and tourists, but locals too.

And it’s Oxford’s most vulnerable residents who are likely to suffer the health impacts associated with walking in and around the city too. A January 2020 report from Centre for Cities found that living near a busy road may stunt lung growth in children by 14.1% in Oxford, compared to 12.5% in London. This stunting can leave children at risk of developing long-term health problems.

The case of Ella Kissi-Debrah, who died after an acute asthma attack brought on by high levels of PM 2.5 in south London, shows that walking near congested roads can be deadly for children, too.

However, throughout this investigation it has been difficult to collect Oxford-specific data about the impact of vehicles upon pedestrians. Although

Kerr suspected that the majority of driving offences were committed by men in Oxford as they are on a national scale the police require two minutes of filming prior to an offence occurring, making road crimes semi-decriminalised in some parts of the city, like St Clements and Cowley Road.

She added that “the police simply don’t have the time or resources to enforce these issues”, and that changes had to happen at a national level too.

Most e-scooters remain illegal, for example, despite their prolificness in Oxford.

As Caroline Criado-Perez wrote in her 2019 book “Invisible Women”, cities have long been designed for men’s needs, which revolve around linear car journeys to and from work.

Whilst Criado-Perez’s work has been criticised for its binaristic vision of gender difference, her ideas are not new. In 1981, the Matrix Feminist Design Cooperative launched their manifesto, contesting the patriarchal design of cities. They published, held exhibitions and initiated radical building projects, providing spaces for women to flee from domestic abuse, learn English and live in lesbian and gay housing co-operatives.

And Oxford is not distanced from these developments either. The School of Geography and the Environment has played a seminal role in fostering feminist thinkers, including former Head of School Professor Gillian Rose. Logically, it is strange that a city which has long been associated with activism remains so exclusionary for pedestrians.

But Kerr believes that it

doesn’t have to be this way.

A simple change to Oxford’s streets could involve implementing the Dutch Entrance Curb, which instead of causing the whole pavement to slope down, makes it easier and safer for pedestrians to cross. This could make walking better, not just for those with mobility issues.

But, these changes would be costly, Kerr admits. And they don’t solve the issue which she highlights as key: “we’ve got to restrict cars in Oxford”.

Over the past 30 years, cars have been getting progressively bigger. This puts a strain on roads, pushes cyclists towards the pavement, and leads to less room for pedestrians.

The problem has been partly mitigated by pedestrianisation, like on Broad Street, but there remained 91 pedestrian casualties in Oxfordshire in 2021 (the most recent, and local, data available). A six-week consultation into East Oxford’s low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) began on 5th June, although vandalism has hindered council efforts so far.

Fundamentally, this is not just a gender issue. Whilst it’s important that everyone feels safe using the city, everyone will also be better off with fewer potholes, safer crossings and clearer streets. Organisations such as the Oxford Civic Society are aiming to improve walking routes in the city too, although their desire to make Oxford the “street party capital of the UK” shows how the banality of walking is often subsumed by more interesting and current issues.

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

The 5 best albums released this spring Charlie Bowden

M

Culture Culture

Deputy Editor: Charlie Bowden. Section Editors: Johannah Mathew, Jennifer Robinson, Lukas Seifert, Miracle Kalonga

22 | Culture

usic is a comfort to many, especially in the hectic chaos of an Oxford term. We’re almost halfway through 2023 already and there have been many great releases since the year began.

As testament to that, I present to you five of the best albums released this spring, ordered by release date.

Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) - Yves Tumor In spite of Lana Del Rey’s inclusion further down this list, I am happy to report that this album has the longest title of the five. Miami-born musician Yves Tumor first came to my attention in 2020 when their fourth album Heaven to a Tortured Mind made it onto countless lists of the year’s best records.

This ambitious new LP retains the experimental electronica style of their last album while diving deeper into a kind of futuristic rock that gives Praise a Lord Who Chews a more serrated sonic edge. The result of this enigmatic reinvention is an atmospheric and far-reaching examination of the depths of the human psyche, delivered through a mix of magical and divine metaphors that stick in the mind.

Favourite track: “Echolalia” - the magic of this song lies in its pulsating yet subdued beat, accentuating Tumor’s crooning about the power of an allencompassing, divine beauty that is worth yearning for.

Live at Bush Hall - Black Country, New Road “Look at what we did together / BCNR, friends forever” - this lyric from Black Country, New Road’s first live album tells you everything you need to know about the band after the departure of their lead vocalist Isaac Wood last year. They recognise that their lineup may have changed, but they haven’t lost their touch and they are moving on to a new phase of their career. Live at Bush Hall, originally released as a concert film in February, contains allnew material with the duties of lead singer now being rotated between Tyler Hyde, May Kershaw, and Lewis Evans. Though

their previous two albums were also recorded mostly live, the polish of a studio recording is intentionally left out here.

Awkward introductions from band members, false starts between performances, and the roar of the crowd at the Bush Hall shows in December 2022 are on display for all to see and hear. A year on from Wood’s departure, BCNR’s successful capturing of the same artful experimental rock ambience with these new tracks is proof of each member’s musical ingenuity. Listening to the album all the way through is a simply sublime experience. This is easily one of the best live albums of the decade so far.

Favourite track: “Up Song” - the aforementioned lyric derives from the album’s gloriously chaotic opener. Its existential themes gear the listener up for the poetic complexity you would expect from a BCNR album, before subverting that build-up entirely with a proud statement of unity between members past and present.

The ending of the track as Tyler Hyde tells the audience to bear with them throughout the performance highlights the unrefined beauty of this live format.

Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd Lana Del Rey Lana Del Rey has a very eclectic discography. Her previous two albums, both released in 2021, received mixed reviews and the controversies that she always seems to be embroiled in somewhat overshadowed them. Ocean Blvd isn’t much different - you only have to look at the sermon from megachurch priest Judah Smith wedged in the middle of the tracklist to see that - but this record carries a sense of maturity not seen in Lana’s past works. The lyrics are steeped in discussions of family, friendship, and mental health, feeling like an examination of Lana’s tortured life.

Her reflections on songs like “Fingertips” are nothing short of heartbreaking, but the album also contains more enigmatic anthems like “Peppers” which feel like a callback to her older music. Ultimately Del Rey’s latest album isn’t dissimilar

from her others but the quality of what is being presented is undeniable.

Favourite track: “A&W” - an enticing marriage of the more carefree trip hop tracks on one half of the album and the sombre reflections of the other. In a classic Del Rey move, “A&W” is both a reference to the American root beer brand and what Lana brands herself throughout the song - an “American whore”. The poignant lyrics on the treatment of women as sexual currency in entertainment are marvellously undercut by the psychedelic trap-tinged outro, in which Lana has a big problem with a man called Jimmy. Across seven minutes she covers so much emotional ground that listening to the song feels like a pilgrimage along America’s beer-drinking, weed-smoking, woman-hating roots.

Rat Saw God - Wednesday In an age where oddly-named rock bands with oddly-named albums are a dime a dozen, I wasn’t sure how I would feel going into Wednesday’s fifth studio album, but it turns out that the craziness of Rat Saw God makes it deserving of that odd title. The ten-song collection carries all the hallmarks of an indie rock classic turned up to eleven. Lead singer Karly Hurtzman’s dynamic vocal performances are a highlight throughout but the emphatic creativity displayed in the lyrics and instrumentals is also key. The tracks suck you in with their sonic variety and bombastic songwriting, with lead single “Bull Believer” ending with Hurtzman screaming “finish him” Mortal Kombat style. Despite the record’s attention-grabbingly eccentric elements, the songs seem to carve out a space in the dark for you to wallow in as you listen.

It’s an ear-splittingly intimate experience.

Favourite track: “Turkey Vultures” - continuing the oddities of naming, the album’s eighth track is delightfully poetic in

its existentialism. The streamof-consciousness songwriting builds in intensity alongside the instrumentation, the band steadily increasing the pace as the track progresses to reach an emotive climax. With the song stretching past four minutes, its short verses are surrounded by pure music on both sides that exemplifies Wednesday’s ability to say so much with so little.

That! Feels Good! - Jessie Ware That! Feels Good! is a career rebirth for Jessie. She was planning to quit music altogether in 2020 but the critical and commercial success of her last album What’s Your Pleasure?, which saw her tap into a new realm of euphoric disco, reeled her back in. Though That! Feels Good! treads a lot of the same ground as her prior LP, her lyrics are more grounded in authentic feeling, no doubt a product of the need to reconnect in the wake of the pandemic. This album proves that Ware’s step in disco wasn’t a one-time fluke - instead, her foot is firmly in the door and she’s pulling you onto the dancefloor.

Favourite track: “Begin Again” - even without knowing the story behind it, you can get a sense from listening to “Begin Again” that it was the first song written for the album. It’s a musical marvel, with the bridge building up a vibrant mix of synths and live instrumentation to produce an incredible release as the final chorus kicks in. The songwriting marks a triumphant move from the virtual to the physical, rejecting the inhumanity of isolation and demanding true connection: “give me something good that’s even better than it seems / why does all the purest love get filtered through machines?”.

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

Culture | 23

Spelling Bee pandemonium (in a good way) Johannah Mathew

T

he night before watching the Eglesfield Musical Society’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (directed by Harry Brook), there was a thunderstorm. Although it might’ve been an initial panic to the staff and tech team, it led to one of the best theatre set-ups the production could’ve hoped for.

For about 20 minutes before the musical began, the actors improvised in incredibly convincing American accents (I’m still confused as to whether any of them were actually American, their accents were just that good), running around the Queen’s College garden playing tag, handing out mock-hacking leaflets for the Oxford Union President role (I’m looking at mine whilst I write this, the slate name is: PENETRATE) and speaking awkwardly into the mic as a sound check. During this, Ms Mahoney (played

by Grace Olusola), the spelling bee’s janitor, lowkey menacingly asked if I had finished my friend’s chocolate chip cookies so that she could put it in her bin bag – I had not… but she eventually came back for it in about 10 minutes when I was done, a brilliant introduction

to the cast!

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a twotime winning and six-time Tony Award nominated 2005 musical set in the American Putnam Valley Middle School, where six slightly quirky pre-teens enter an annual spelling bee and battle it out, with each participant revealing a part of their (pretty traumatic) childhood and home life through song. This production involved audience participation, with three audience members (plus one audience liaison) joining the competition. In surprise to both the audience and cast, the audience participants did strangely well at spelling and managed to stay on-stage for a good chunk of the opening half. Although the cast, band and crew were incredible that night, the real star of the show was the mother of Leaf Coneybear’s actor (Luke Nixon) appearing as an audience participant, creating some hysterical interactions between the pair, including Leaf sitting on his real mother’s lap and also getting her to feed him a banana as part of the scenery to another character’s spelling.

Another standout was the exaggeration as to which the

characters would go in order to succeed in the Spelling Bee, including William Barfée’s (it’s pronounced Bar-fay, not Bar-fee by the way) magic foot (played by Declan Rider… the character, not the foot), Leaf Coneybear’s spiritual possession and Marcy Park’s (played

by Emily Britto-Davis) prayer to God. God does in fact appear during ‘I Speak Six Languages’, a song where Marcy does what the title says, does unexpected gymnastic tricks, including ribbon dancing and mock-plays the piano in the pit. In prayer, God appears spotlighted (Angel Gabriel Nativity style) in one of the upper Queen’s College windows, proclaiming that he has better things to do than worry about a kid in a spelling bee and that Marcy doesn’t have to care about being good at everything.

He then, rather suddenly, slinks into the back of the room, away from the visible window.

Some song highlights were Chip Tolentino’s (played by Maurice Cole) ‘My Unfortunate Erection’, a song about a teenage boy losing a competition to… well… you know.

The song is so extra, incorporating the stereotypical elements of an epic book theatre

ballad, with Chip belting (very impressively) ‘all because of my unfortunate erection. Oh, God!’ which is not something I was necessarily expecting to hear… well, ever really. ‘Woe is Me’ exaggerates the pressure of doing well in school competitions with Logainne Schwartzand-Grubenierre’s (a brilliant name played even more brilliantly by Bella Diaz Pascual) pushy, arguing dads coming to the forefront. She’s also head of the schools ‘GayStraight Alliance’ which I didn’t realise was an actual thing and can’t really think of anything else more American.

The musical’s climax was ‘The

I Love You Song’, discussing Olive Ostrovky’s (played by Eva Bailey) absent parents. Although the vocal performances were the best of the whole musical, the song might’ve been the worst, with some of the worst writing and smudges of cultural appropriation, which might’ve been a satire, but I’m not too sure. This again, is to no fault of the cast or crew, rather the original writing, as everyone still pulled through with the best performance possible.

The show managed to be both hilarious and heart-warming at the same time and was a great treat away from exams and impending deadlines.

Earnestly irreverent: Oriel College’s The Importance of Being Earnest, reviewed Jennifer Robinson

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here was a lot going against me enjoying this play, that was completely outside of the Oriel College Garden production’s control. I’d been up since 5 and just wanted to sleep, the weather was cold and windy, people behind me kept whispering and the occasional sound of traffic from somewhere in the distance did nothing to serenade the average audience member. And I have to be honest, it took a while for the performance to find its feet, but once it did, it was sprinting. The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People was first performed in 1895, and over a century later it still captivates audiences with its ironic wit and vivacious sense of fun; however, it is the more serious undertones and societal critiques that truly make this a timeless piece. It was an im-

mediate success, and the play is heralded as Wilde’s greatest work, although in many ways it was the beginning of the end, Wilde being sent to prison soon after. This time around, it has been directed by Bella Simpson and Danann Kilburn.

The performance took place in Oriel College’s first quad, which was excellent for capturing the extravagance of the world of The Importance of Being Earnest. The ornate architecture and grand entrance acted as the perfect backdrop for discussions of Bunburying and the seriousness of meals. The outdoor setting was always going to be a risk, and at the start of the evening I was worried it wouldn’t pay off, but as the night drew on and the elegant whimsy of the performance took over, I soon forgot about how much I wished I’d brought an extra layer. In fact, the cold

was curiously fitting, considering that at the 1895 premiere it was similarly chilly weather.

Honestly, it would be difficult to stage a bad performance of Wilde’s signature witty and verbosely decorous play. It is always a delight to see his words come to life, and in such skilful hands as the Oriel Garden players, it was a treat to witness. The plot follows the plights of Jack Worthing (Grace Romans) and his friend Algernon Moncrieff (Freddie Houlahan) as they get themselves into various “scrapes”, as Algernon calls them, trying to woo their respective love interests of Gwendolen Fairfax (Nidhi Madhani) and Cecily Cardew (Judy Durkin). At the dinner party, during which we are introduced to the brilliant Lady Bracknell (Peregrine Neger), Jack proposes to Gwendolyn, and Algernon learns of Jack’s

house in the country. Indeed, it is this house to which we are transported after the interval, to meet Cecily and Miss Prism (Phoebe Winter), who is having her own love affair with Reverend Chasuble (Marcus O’Conner). In this nominal culture where names are everything, both Jack and Algernon attempt to Christen themselves as Ernest, as it has been the dream of Gwendolyn and Cecily to marry someone with such a name. Through a series of misdemeanours, the gloriously convoluted plot culminates in the revelation that Jack is in fact Ernest all along (although truly earnest he is not), and everything can end happily ever after.

Everyone gave their all in this performance, and the portrayal of Lady Bracknell was stellar.

Whilst the programme boasts of having Jack played by a fe-

male presenting actor and having Lady Bracknell perform in drag, I have to wonder if this is quite as revolutionary as they claim. Regardless, it certainly fed into the spirit of Wilde’s original play, where gender roles are continually interrogated. The music was the star of the show, and the passion was evident in the quality of the melodious elements of the play.

Simpson writes in the director’s note, “music is key to all that I do,” and this is captured in the immersive use of sound throughout the show, demonstrating the skills of musical director Alessandro Mackinnon-Botti.

As I mentioned at the beginning, there was a lot going against me enjoying this play.

Yet I still had a wonderful evening, which is testament to the talents of both cast and crew.

24 | Culture

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

“the one who pulls focus is as important as anyone in front of the camera”:

in conversation with...

Lukas Seifert As I sit down to start the interview, I’m trying to square Edward Norton the actor with Edward Norton as I know him on the big screen. Before me is the Hulk, then it’s Tyler Durden. It’s Derek and then it’s Miles Bron. But, in reality, I’m sitting across a family man, with his phone in hand. He’s got a wry smile as he looks up and asks me which paper I work for and where I come from. He’s tired after his talk in the Union chamber, but seems happy to be chatting with me, as his wife and children explore the Old Library downstairs.

Edward Norton, known for his roles in Fight Club, American History X and, more recently, Glass Onion visited Oxford on the 4th June, 2023, where he gave a talk at the Oxford Union debating society. A man passionate about environmentalism, he believes more in collaboration to effect change, rather than individual fame or status.

What role do you believe film and storytelling plays in shaping public opinion and driving conservation efforts, and how has your involvement in environmental causes influenced your choice of projects?

I’ve generally felt that documentary form is superior for dealing with the complexities of environmental sustainability, educating and provoking people toward action. Some of the early treatments of [environmental issues] have been disaster films and I don’t think those help really. I just worked on this series called Extrapolations on Apple TV that Scott Burns wrote. He’s the

writer of Contagion and An Inconvenient Truth and a number of other really good films about complex issues. I call [Extrapolations] the Black Mirror of environmental disaster. It imagines in a very sophisticated and science based way, what the social moral physical realities coming in for us are. I thought it was a great example of using narrative skill and the imaginative power of storytelling to project what could be our imminent realities in a really compelling way that provokes thought. So the truth is, this thing I’ve just done is almost the first time that I’ve found something in my career to do something on these themes.

I suppose Fight Club is an attack on social issues as well, tackling consumerism.

Yes, but I think that’s more of an inditement of the material, consumer culture that leaves people feeling hollow. I think it’s more more of a spiritual analysis than an environmental one.

Then this new project, Extrapolations, is truly the environmentally focused project.

Yeah, Extrapolations really focuses intensively on the negative impacts that we could be facing from climate change.

Are you looking to do more of this in the future?

Hm. I like the idea of it but of course as with all things its like encountering work that you feel solid about.

The reason I did Extrapolations is that I think Scott is such a great writer. I really enjoyed this recent project

Edward Norton

and we need more of it for sure.

Having donated to Biden’s campaign in 2020, do you feel there is a political aspect to climate change?

I’ve been a low grade contributor to the Democratic Party. Anyways, I don’t think that the notion that environmental sustainability, environmental regulation, protection of natural resources, is really in any way a left leaning agenda.

That whole idea is patently absurd, it’s ludicrous.

The most positive thing in this regard is that I think that we are in a tipping point, an authentic tipping point. The global financial markets have realised that the clean energy revolution and the overall clean tech is probably the largest investment opportunity of the next hundred years.

I think that corporations are grasping that on a balance sheet basis they will be out performed by companies that work out carbon neutrality. It’s not just because of the marketing optics but because water conservation, energy conservation, and so on are all going to be cheaper, it will produce superior economic results.

Many people who have been arguing for defence environment on basis of intrinsic value of nature may not like that the strongest lever might be the economic one. But, I think its very positive that we have an accelerating sense that extractive business models that degrade the environment are going to be inferior business models.

What is the reality is of being a celebrity? On one hand, you’re a human being who cares about conservation and has a family. At the same you’re this huge movie star. How do these two truths come together?

It’s a strange thing that our culture has elevated people in the performing arts, in music and film and, of course, sports. I get it on one level because I certainly remember the experience of films in my youth; it had a big impact. There was a kind of totemic power in how they shaped your sense of the world. The magic trick of great actors had an impact on me too.

But, I think that the idea that it has as much cultural collateral as we’ve put on it is still strange and in some ways unhealthy. You look at people who win the Nobel prize, who work their entire career for this one moment.

On the other side, you’ll see twelve award shows for the same film in one year.

If I say ‘Andre Geim’, who won the Nobel Prize, people wouldn’t generally know who that is.

No, exactly and I think our cultural priorities are a little out of balance in that sense.

Linking that to film, you could say those working on movies behind the scenes don’t get lauded in the same way the actors do.

Precisely and the truth of the matter is that workingon films is a very technical process. The environment of it is mostly unions - everybody working on

films is in unions. It’s a tradecraft: there’s electricians and lighting and makeup and everything.

At it’s best it’s a very egalitarian experience because everybody relies on everybody else. The one who pulls focus is as important as anyone in front of the camera. You’re not done until they’re satisfied, you know what I mean? I think that’s really cool. The experience doesn’t have that hype around it. The hype only comes in these really narrow moments.

Is it narrow though?

Don’t you have this constant fame as a big celebrity?

I think being well known is a manageable disease. It’s just like having its like having eczema: it’s not always pleasant, but it’s not gonna kill you and you learn to manage it. You learn the tricks for navigating it and at best you try to figure out how you can leverage it to do something positive. In a rational world there would be an Oscars of science every year, there’d be a BAFTA for the best teachers and they’d get the same public celebration.

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

Advert | 25

Student Advice Student Advice is the only independent advice and information service exclusively available to Oxford University Students. We do our best to reply to you within 2 working days. You can also call us during term time.

Get In Touch: Email - advice@oxfordsu.ox.ac.uk Phone - 07436225630 - 10.30am12.30pm, Monday-Thursday (termtime only) Online: oxfordsu.org/advicewellbeing

26 | Green

Deputy Editor: Jasmine Wilkinson Section Editor: Eliza Smith oxstu.green@gmail.com

Green

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

App-solutely Green...

Jasmine Wilkinson

A

re you tired of using up phone storage with apps that waste your time and your storage? Then look no further. These five remarkable apps harness the power of technology to offer practical solutions to many common problems faced by students. while having the added benefit of saving the planet!

1. Forest We all know the story. The all-too common problem faced by students, who promise themselves, ‘just one more episode!’, before losing hours upon hours of their time. I know how often I’ve fallen victim to the productivity blackhole that is social media.

Well, the Forest app is here to solve that problem! The concept revolves around the idea of planting virtual trees that grow while you stay focused on your tasks. When you open the app and start a session, you select a specific time period during which you want to remain focused. A virtual tree will be planted in your digital forest which grows so long as you resist the temptation to leave the app. If you successfully complete the session, the tree will fully mature, and you will be rewarded with virtual coins!

However, if you exit the app,

your tree will wither and die.

How does it benefit you?

In my experience, the physical threat of killing my hardearned tree prevents me from falling back into the predictable pattern of checking my phone every time it pings, enabling me to actually focus on writing my essays.

This is useful, since I’m not sure the excuse of watching 8 hours of TikTok is ever going to go down well with my tutors. Plus, who doesn’t want to grow a virtual tree?

is, or look up how to revamp old dominoes pizza, you can smile smugly to yourself in the knowledge that even your most benign questions are contributing to reforestation.

How does it benefit you?

Alongside the obvious, that Ecosia is a search engine, there are certain other benefits. Ecosia emphasizes privacy and data security. They do not sell user data or create user profiles for targeted advertising. Additionally, it offers features including a customizable homepage with background images from various ecosystems.

How does it benefit the planet?

How does it benefit the planet?

As you accumulate virtual coins, you have the option to contribute them towards planting real trees in partnership with Trees for the Future, a non-profit organization focused on sustainable agriculture. According to Trees for the Future, the Forest app has planted 2, 090, 012 trees!

Deforestation is a major threat to our planet, with 10 million hectares of forest lost every single year. The app aims to combat deforestation and support reforestation efforts around the world, by using a large portion of the ad revenue generated by each search to plant trees.

As of 2022, 146 million trees had been financed by Ecosia.

2. Ecosia Downloading Ecosia is one of the easiest ways you can contribute to saving the Earth since you’ll be planting trees every time you search the web!

Every time you try and find a song you’ve had stuck in your head, question how old that actor who’s been around forever

3. Too Good to Go I will never stop talking about this app. The hungry students best friend, say goodbye to your growling stomach, and say hello to a package of ridiculously cheap food from your favourite restaurants in

Oxford. Rather than turning to a tired pot noodle, you can dine on gourmet leftovers, while helping to combat food waste! It’s a win-win. The app is a platform for restaurants, cafes, bakeries, supermarkets, and other food establishments to sell their leftover food at discounted prices, rather than throwing it away. The app uses your location to display a list of nearby participating businesses. Each business listed offers a ‘Magic Bag’ or a ‘Surprise Bag’ containing surplus food items that would otherwise go to waste. These bags typically include items like pastries, sandwiches, salads, fruits, and other perishable food items.

How does it benefit you?

No more going hungry or not knowing what to cook!

Items are priced at a significant discount compared to their regular prices, which is ideal when you’re working on a student budget. The exact contents of the bag are not revealed beforehand, adding an element of mystery that will spice up your weekly food shop. Additional perks?

In my experience, you’re often gifted an inordinate amount of food. Which means your mates will love you when you offer them free samples!

How does it benefit the planet?

Food waste is a major environmental issue. On average, the UK throws away 9.52 million tonnes of food per year, which emits 25 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, with around 1/3 of all food produced going to waste. The Too Good to Go app therefore allows users to save money on food, while also contributing to the fight against food waste.

4. Vinted Are you a charity-shop enthusiast, but finding Oxford’s charity shops to be lacking? Or are you looking to make a bit of extra money to supplement your weekly Park End trip? Vinted is here to save the day. The Vinted app is a mobile application that serves as a marketplace for buying, selling, and trading second-hand fashion items. The app is easy to use, enabling you to upload photos, add descriptions, set prices, and manage inventory. For buyers, the Vinted app offers a variety of search and filtering options to discover items that match their preferences. Users can search by category, brand, size, price range, and location.

The app also provides a rating system and user reviews, allowing buyers to assess the reliability and trustworthiness of sellers before purchasing.

Read the rest on our website!

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

Editors: Emily Hudson, Nicole Hasler, Tymoteusz Syrytczyk oxstu.science@gmail.com

SciTech

SciTech | 27

on the razor’s edge:

by Nicole Hasler

T

biological risk in the 21st century

hree years ago, the world we live in changed seemingly overnight: as the Covid-19 pandemic spread, people stayed locked indoors, and the economy ground to a halt. Buzzwords such as “biosecurity” and “pandemic preparedness” were thrown around, with promises to address these issues once everything had settled back to normal. But as normalcy returned, vigilance has begun to waver – despite a near certainty that another, potentially far worse, pandemic will hit within our lifetime.

Many researchers and organisations now believe that the largest threat comes not from “natural” pathogens, but from engineered ones. The Covid-19 lab leak theory is still under debate, but accidental lab leaks do happen, and they happen with unnerving regularity.

The SARS virus that emerged in 2003 escaped from at least 3 laboratories in the years following its discovery. Only last year, France issued a ban on research into the prion protein that causes the degenerative brain disease Creutzfeld-Jakob disease after two researchers working on the disease developed symptoms. And these are only some of the leaks that have been made public: most biosafety officers admit that they don’t report accidents to anyone outside their institution.

Rather than helping to mitigate this issue, the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to perpetuate it, as governments race to set up more high-security labs. Almost half of the 59 maximum containment labs around the world (known as biosafety level 4, or BSL4, labs) have been established in the past decade, and more than three quarters are in cities, where a leak could spread rapidly through a large population.

The other worrying scenario is that of an engineered pandemic. If Covid-19 taught us anything, it’s that a disease can be a perfect weapon, causing more deaths and economic damage than most wars. With

advances in genetic engineering, researchers are able to design organisms and bring them to life more easily than ever before. Although it’s still out of reach, it may soon become possible for people to design pathogens that are more contagious or deadly than natural ones. Weaponised contagious diseases may sound a bit dystopian, but they were very real threats during the Cold War, with the USA and Soviet Union both working hard to develop them. At the height of the Soviet program, there were around 40’000 scientists and engineers working in 60 facilities across the country. At the time, their methods were thankfully limited to what we now consider rudimentary molecular biology, but now that tools are more precise and easier to use, biological weapons may become a worthy defence investment for states at war. Thankfully, there is currently no way to make pathogens selective for a specific population, meaning that any country deploying a disease against another would be placing themselves at risk. The Biological Weapons Convention of the 1970s also technically binds countries to not using or developing biological weapons.

While this means we may not see bio-warfare on a national scale for a while yet, it does not mitigate the risk from terrorist groups with no population to protect and less to lose.

“The threat posed by human-made diseases is grave.”

Creating a deadly disease is now almost certainly within reach of even a poorly-equipped team. In 2017, researchers from Canada announced that they had synthesised horsepox, a relative of smallpox, from pieces of DNA ordered in the mail. While horsepox itself isn’t dangerous to humans, the technique could easily be adapted to recreate smallpox, a horrible disease that was only eradicated in the 1980s thanks

to a global vaccine effort. Researchers estimate that bringing smallpox back would be feasible for a small team with little knowledge about viruses in just half a year, costing less than $100’000.

“Creating a deadly disease is now almost certainly within reach of even a poorlyequipped team.”

Given both the risks from lab leaks and those from maliciously engineered pandemics, the threat posed by human-made diseases is grave. So what can we do about it? It turns out the same advances in biology that make engineering diseases possible may also help us fight them off. Mass genetic sequencing could be used to analyse genetic fragments from all over our environment, alerting us to new sequences that we don’t recognise and could be from a novel pathogen. Additionally, mRNA vaccines – such as those developed for Covid-19 – have the potential to rapidly speed up vaccine development. They can instruct our body to make any protein we choose, meaning that as soon as we know which proteins are on a pathogen’s surface, we could design a vaccine to target it. With faster vaccine delivery, the threat from pandemics could be markedly reduced, although issues with production and equal distribution remain.

While engineered pandemics may seem like the work of the future, past bio-terrorism attempts have used toxins, such as nerve agents, to achieve their aims. Perhaps the most recent example is one close to home, with Russian agents accused of the attempted murder of a former double agent using the nerve blocker Novichok. Currently, there is a limited list of toxic substances that are deadly to humans even in small doses. This is because chemistry is complicated (even for chemists). In order to find a molecule that does what you

want, you need to first find the right chemical structure, then design a sequence of chemical reactions that will link up atoms in the desired way. This process used to be one of trial and error, with many attempts and years in the lab needed to refine both the molecule itself and the steps needed to build it. Artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to make this process faster, easier and cheaper – no doubt a relief to chemists around the world. Machine learning algorithms can learn from past experiments and use the pattern of successful and unsuccessful attempts to predict potentially useful new molecules. One tool developed in Germany was able to come up with a pathway to synthesise a molecule 30 times more quickly than humans can.

“For the moment, our advances in biology and AI leave us poised on the razor’s edge between progress and peril.”

These algorithms are also of great interest for drug development. Currently, pharmaceutical companies store libraries of chemicals that they then screen for potential diseasefighting activity. This screening process is slow and inefficient, with only few of the substances yielding a hit and libraries only storing a fraction of the 1030 possible molecules. Generative learning tools can be trained on existing drugs to then predict libraries of new molecules that have similar properties and could work to treat diseases.

These technologies bring hope to the field of drug discovery, but also have the potential to be used for nefarious purposes.

One company has developed an AI drug discovery algorithm that, like most in the field, aims to maximise pharmacological activity at the desired target while minimising predicted toxicity. This means that if a molecule generated by the algorithm is similar to a substance

that is known to be toxic in humans, it will discard it from its library. As a thought experiment, the researchers decided to test what would happen if they instructed the model to reward toxicity. The results shocked them: within only 6 hours, the model had generated 40’000 toxic substances, including VX, the most toxic nerve agent ever developed.

Some molecules were predicted to be more poisonous than any currently known chemical warfare agent. The researchers say that it is fairly easy for anyone with access to a similar algorithm to replicate their work, and raise alarm bells that the technology has the potential to do serious global harm.

Although AI will no doubt lead to advances in many fields, there is a growing call for researchers to think about the implications of their research – not only in the area of biosecurity. Currently, the field is poorly regulated by both governments and researchers themselves. That may soon change: more and more AI experts are expressing concerns about the risks of AI and urging governments to take action. For researchers, simple steps such as making code and data used in publications on AI available on request only would enhance control over their use It has been said that as the 20th century was the century of the atom, the 21st century will be that of biology. So far, this prediction seems to be holding: while the threat of nuclear war loomed over the late 1900s, we now live in an era where pandemics are our greatest menace. Despite this, most countries lag behind in their biological security strategies, preferring to ignore the warning shot of Covid-19 now that the danger has temporarily passed. For the moment, our advances in biology and AI leave us poised on the razor’s edge between progress and peril.

28 | Advert

The Great Oxbridge BOGOF is a food donation drive where you BOGOF: Buy One, Give One Free! When students go shopping, and we encourage them to buy an item that their local food bank also needs, to donate it. It’s a friendly competition between Oxford and Cambridge, to see who can collect the most items.

Find out how to get involved, and how your College is getting along by scanning the QR Code

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

Looking for a space for a meeting, a meeting, a study session or an event? Why not book one of the SU spaces!

2x Meeting Rooms - 15 person capacity 1x Social Space - 40 person capacity Book online via the QR Code

4 Worcester Street Oxford OX1 2BX

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FOOD&DRINK

Food od & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink

30 | Food and Drink

Deputy Editor: Jasmine Wilkinson Section Editor: Kasturi Pindar oxstu.food@gmail.com

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

The Faces Behind the Formal

A behind-the-scenes investigation into Formal Hall Kasturi Pindar

W

hether a lover or a hater of Oxford traditions, we have all attended formal halls, a major part of student life at the university. Outside of the Oxbridge bubble, formals can be the subject of speculation and occasionally make national news, whilst internally, opinion is divided over whether formals reinforce social privilege or simply allow space for students to decompress during stressful academic terms. Students and the student experience are often at the centre of such speculation and debate, however less attention is given to those who work hard to make this experience possible: those running kitchens, cooking meals, serving food and managing large dining halls.

Who, therefore, are the faces behind the formal?

On a sunny day at St Antony’s College, on Woodstock Road, I sit down with the Head Chef, Andrew Tipton. Andrew tells me that he was immersed in kitchens from an early age: “My father used to have a large catering equipment company. I used to go into work with him and I liked the aura from the head chefs.” He trained as a chef at a conference centre in Witney, just outside Oxford, before moving to Merton College to work as a chef de partie.

From there, he moved to University College, where he progressed through the ranks to Head Chef. He’s since worked at St Antony’s for ten years, where he enjoys managing kitchen staff and occasionally gathering wild garlic from the college grounds for use in meals.

St Antony’s is one of few colleges to serve vegetarian meals as default, with meat as an opt-in, and feedback from students is often requested. In fact, working with students to improve formals and menus is all part of the job. Each term, Andrew works with the GCR President to review formals and design menus: “Sometimes they’re not as bothered, but some years they’ll come to me with big ideas and I have to encourage them to calm down, because budget-wise, not everything is possible.”

Similarly, at Hertford Col-

lege, the Head of Catering Services, Simon Robinson, works closely with JCR and MCR reps, who have helped develop new ideas for formals and catering, including an ‘informal formal’ on Sunday evenings, and breakfast and ice lollies served during Oxford Pride. This working relationship with students has also helped the college develop a more sustainable approach to catering, prioritising local suppliers and ethically sourced products. “The students have opened my eyes far more to sustainability, and quite rightly they judge me on that,” Simon tells me.

“The students have opened my eyes far more to sustainability, and quite rightly they judge me on that.”

What are college kitchens actually like?

At St Antony’s, Andrew describes the kitchen as relatively calm: “It’s not how kitchens are generally portrayed, as a chaotic environment with chefs running around sweating and the head chef shouting. Those days are long gone.” The kitchen was recently refurbished, Andrew having designed the flow of the new space. He gives me a tour, and as described, it is calm and air-conditioned.

We move past pantry rooms for storing dry goods, a walkin fridge and a freezer, before coming to an area reserved for high-risk products. In the main section of the kitchen, one chef rapidly cuts vegetables for the formal that night, whilst another is preparing salads for the dining hall lunch in a couple of hours. Sauces bubble away in enormous pans.

At Hertford College, the kitchen and servery are much older and smaller, something that Simon describes as one of the more challenging parts of the job, though they are hoping for a refurbishment in the coming years. Simon works closely with Hertford’s Head Chef, investing in training and employing a couple of apprentices who are working towards professional qualifications. Despite the difficulties of working in an older space, Simon is confident

that they are able to provide great service and excellent food without much trouble.

However, as any Oxford student will know, formals are not only about food. They are just as much about the experience: tables carefully laid, candles lit in the centre of the table—or as the Tab once described it: “like something out of Downton Abbey.” As such, there is also a lot of admin involved behind the scenes for catering and dining hall staff to ensure things run smoothly.

At Worcester, Sarah Wozencroft is the Catering Manager.

Day-to-day, Sarah manages a team of staff including frontof-house, and spends time taking care of bookings, dietary requests and queries, to ensure that formals and events run smoothly. She previously worked as a Butler at All Souls, which was a very different experience, as of course, there are no students and the level of formality is much higher. In contrast, Sarah tells me that the atmosphere at Worcester is friendly and supportive, though if she could, she would free herself from admin tasks in order to spend more time working face-to-face with students.

The Catering and Conference Manager at Somerville, Dave Simpson, considers dietary requirements to be the most challenging part of managing formals. When students don’t provide their guests’ dietary requirements until the last minute, the experience of working in the kitchen at a formal can go from a smooth evening to a more stressful ordeal. Nonetheless, staff at Somerville are approachable, and maintaining a positive and friendly relationship between staff and students is considered important.

“The Catering and Conference Manager at Somerville, Dave Simpson, considers dietary requirements to be the most challenging part of managing formals.”

The friendly relationship between staff and students seems to be a theme at all the colleges I visit. At Hertford, Simon tells me that before working here, he had a long career in cater-

ing at hotels, nightclubs, the City of London, even Buckingham Palace. Managing and running a minimum of three formals a week, often more, is relatively low pressure compared to the regimented and tightly-timed banquets at the Guildhall. Simon puts his passion for catering down to the relationships he’s built with others—members of staff and students: “In the catering department, we’re the people who see the students more than anyone else. My staff get on with the students so well.

We know whether they’re having a good day or a bad day”.

Ultimately, Simon enjoys being surrounded by enthusiastic young people, telling me that although it sounds sentimental, the current generation gives him hope.

“The friendly relationship between staff and students seems to be a theme at all the colleges I visit.”

Back at St Antony’s, Cathy is the Deputy Steward, with oversight of the dining hall and front-of-house staff, and Milena is the Assistant Steward. Whilst Cathy has worked at St Antony’s for 25 years, starting out as a casual before progressing to her current role, Milena is relatively new, having previously worked in hotels. For Milena, the experience of working in a college couldn’t be any less like working in hotels, where the customer is always right and saying ‘no’ isn’t an option. Milena tells me that after starting at St Antony’s, “it took a while to get used to telling students, ‘I’m sorry but we cannot do that,’” though the ability to say no is a welcome change. The more respectful relationship between staff and students, as compared to staff and customers in hotels, means that work at the college is far less stressful and Milena has rarely dealt with instances of rudeness when serving meals. Like at Hertford and Somerville, Cathy and Milena describe a positive, friendly relationship between staff and students.

Read the rest on our website www.theoxfordstudent.com,.

Sport

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The Oxford Student | Friday 9 June 2023

we had started. But now, we were determined to seek revenge.

Metre by metre, we closed in on our rivals. With a steady and powerful rhythm, our coxswain spurred us on, shouting motivational phrases like “ribs,” “looong,” and my personal favorite, “presscelerate.” As we approached the crossing near University College boat house, his voice rang out: “OVERLAP.” The thousands of spectators cheering from the banks rejuvenated us, and we poured our hearts into the next 20 strokes.

Metre by metre, we closed in on our rivals. With a steady and powerful rhythm, our coxswain spurred us on, shouting motivational phrases like “ribs,” “looong,” and my personal favorite, “presscelerate.” As we approached the crossing near University College boat house, his voice rang out: “OVERLAP.” The thousands of spectators cheering from the banks rejuvenated us, and we poured our hearts into the next 20 strokes.

Amidst the clamor, I heard: “concession, wind down.” In that moment, everything felt perfect. From my transatlantic voyage to Oxford to my final race in the Eights, every step had led me to this point. Our teammates sprinted along the banks, cheering, “Yaaaa Pembroke!” while tall glasses of Pimms awaited us for a welldeserved celebration after “landing.”

We finished the season ranking third among men’s second boats with two bumps under our belts. Our first division boats remained well positioned for the 400th anniversary of the college with Pembroke M1 finishing in 5th and Pembroke W1 in 6th. As for Heads of the River, Oriel M1 remained in control and Christ Church W1 took the women’s headship.

After the last race, all the rowers rushed to bathe in the Isis and celebrate the end of another fantastic competitive rowing season. As I walked back to my college basking in the sunlight, reflecting on my time rowing, I realized that it is now my dream to come back for a master’s degree and row for Pembroke M1. Rowing is contagious, and I can’t thank Oxford and Pembroke enough for letting me be a part of the prestige and legacy that the sport is so richly immersed in.

Looking back at the 2022/23 Varsity series: Oxford’s sporting success

by Haochen Wang

A

First, a Blue, and a spouse.

Among the many stereotypes that float around Oxford (and Cambridge too, I suppose), the “triumvirate of achievement” at Oxford still remains to be a goal for many. While a First doesn’t really come until Finals, and a spouse even less certain, a Blue is, to some extent, the most immediately achievable through hardwork and dedication. Of course, Full Blues are great, but those donning the dark blue blazer aren’t the sportspeople of Oxford with celebrating, and as this academic year slowly draws to a close, and most Varsity Matches having been concluded, let us look back on yet another year of Oxford sporting success.

With Oxford and Cambridge being high on the list of the world’s oldest institutes of higher education, it is no surprise that the Varsity Matches have had a long history. The first Varsity Match began

So far, with results still coming through and some varsities yet to be held, Oxford has won 69 out of the 133 matches, just over half. in June 1827 when Charles Wordsworth, a then Classicist at Christ Church, Oxford, arranged a two-day cricket match between the two institutes. The first Boat Race, likewise arranged by Wordsworth and friends, was held in 1829 between Hambleden Lock and Henley Bridge. And while historic, the Varsity Matches have continued to broaden its scope, with the Dancesport and Croquet varsities having only begun in the 1960s and 70s.

Irrespective of longevity, sport at Oxford, particularly varsities, has also been particularly strong in “vertical” integration: encouraging camaraderie and teamwork between all sorts of students, whether first year freshers or last year DPhils.

Burdened with all the tradi-

tions to uphold, it is no surprise that preparations for this sporting year began long before Freshers’ Week: Oxford University Yacht Club (OUYC) have a page on their website dedicated to providing information for incoming students and the Oxford University Golf Club (OUGC) held Q&A sessions on their social media to encourage a new batch of eager participants come Michaelmas

ing through and some varsities yet to be held, Oxford has won 69 out of the 133 matches, just over half. And while events like the Boat Race didn’t go our way at all, the Oxford majority (so far) once again speaks testament to the Dark Blue’s hard work and dedication. From the rowing crews’ seemingly non-stop rows up and down the Thames, a staple sight to any who have visited Christ

spoke to him and asked for a favourite moment of the season.

Equally, a celebration of Varsity is not only oriented towards the triumphs that Oxford has enjoyed on the pitch, but also off the pitch.

Personally, I was fortunate enough to represent Oxford in the Men’s second team (Divots) Varsity Match for golf up in Brora, Scotland, and while we didn’t quite manage to cinch a win against the Cambridge Stymies, the excitement and opportunity is still very much the highlight of my first year so far. Speaking to the Men’s Blues captain, Josh Fallows, a three-time Blues himself, he expressed similar sentiments, recalling that beyond the Blues winning their Varsity for the eighth time since 2013, “caddying in the Dinner match (the reserves match) for my teammate could be one of my favourite memories.”

A Blue is, to some extent, the most immediately achievable through hardwork and dedication 2022. And of course, Freshers’ Fair and the first few weeks of term were equally busy: filled with trials, socials, and, most likely, initiation ceremonies, many, including myself, were finally inducted into the community of Oxford Sport.

Although the annual Varsity Ski Trip in the Christmas break may seem to many as a welcome respite from a hectic and overwhelming first term, it also signalled the true beginning of the Varsity Matches with the Ski & Snowboard races taking place at Val Thorens. This year, Oxford and Cambridge were about evenly split, with Oxford taking home the Men’s Blues Team and Women’s Individual titles, and Cambridge the Women’s Blues and Men’s Individual. The results bode well for a yet another exciting year of rivalry and competition between the two.

So far, with results still com-

Church Meadows, to the unwavering emails from the Cross Country Club (OUCCC) captain Jared Martin reminding training, the sporting population at Oxford has, as ever, reminded students, faculty, and media alike that Oxford isn’t just an academic powerhouse.

Of course, while a win at varsity probably ranks high in any sportsperson’s list of memorable moments, varsity is the culmination of a months of hard work, and for many, the season-long lead up to the Oxbridge showdown is just as exciting. Whether BUCS or travelling around the UK competing against clubs, these experiences really cement the camaraderie that develops. For first time American Football (OULAFC) player Maxi Grindley, it was difficult to choose between “winning Varsity” and the joy of the team being “promoted to BUCS Division one” when I

While the mentioning of Varsity and the sporting population at Oxford may inspire a mental image something along the lines of dark blue blazers lounging around the Vincent’s Club with a pint of Pinkies in their hand, it has not stopped having that unique effect on the students, faculty, friends and family of Oxford. Whether it was the massive crowds gathered along the Thames in London for the Boat Race, or the various matches taking place in University Parks, Varsity is perhaps the best platform for the students of Oxford and Cambridge to take precious time away from their essays, problem sheets, tutorials, and exams and to engage in something they love. Ultimately, the spirit of Varsity, and a simple chant of “shoe the tabs,” is to bring together a people through common camaraderie, triumph, and Dark Blue pride.

Sport

Friday 9 June 2023 | The Oxford Student

32 | Sport

Deputy Editor: Haochen Wang Section Editors: Bradley Beck, Patrick Groves, Eleanor Luxton

Joker and the Nuggets: A recipe for success?

by Sam Bankole

A

s a five time NBA All-Star, with five All-NBA selections, back-to-back MVP awards, the Western Conference Finals MVP this year, and soon to be Finals MVP, Nikola Jokić undoubtedly possesses an impressive NBA resume.

Known for his smooth and unpredictable style of play, the seven foot Serbian, better known as the Joker, has captivated the league with his simple and pragmatic approach to basketball: “I believe the only muscles you need in basketball are the ones in your brain.”

Under their lead man, who comes out game after game, unusually leading from the centre position, and making nightly triple doubles seem like an effortless feat (something previously done only by the current HOFer Oscar Robertson, and future HOFer Russell Westbrook), the Nuggets have surged in recent years.

“I believe the only muscles you need in basketball are the ones in your brain.”

But how does he do it?

How has the unathletic, late Round two pick (inconspicuously drafted during a Taco Bell advert, mind you), with a five inch vertical become the best player in the league, inaugurated by Shaq into the exclusive “Big Man Alliance”?

‘Real basketball fans’ will tell you it is because he makes the right plays in the right situations. As every coach will scream until they lose their voice, (shoutout Coach Smith), Jokić plays what the defence gives him, doing only what they let him; always playing simple, efficient, and successful basketball. And, of course, that is why he has been so successful, surpassing the legendary Wilt and Kareem (combined!) for career triple-doubles as a

centre, but more importantly, currently leading the Denver Nuggets to their first championship since the team’s inception almost 60 years ago.

Yet, the beauty of the Denver Nuggets is that Jokić does not do this alone. The team does not revolve around a single player like Lebron’s Lakers, or Steph’s Warriors, but each player plays their part. In a unique, but not inappropriate analogy, the team is often compared to a well-constructed roast dinner: the big and beefy Jokić complemented by the well-rounded Aaron Gordon, the silky-smooth Jamal Murray and, of course, Michael Porter Junior (healthy only in small portions). The Nuggets certainly function like a well-oiled machine, and their admirable teamwork is undoubtedly what has led them to the NBA Finals.

But through all this talk of the Nuggets as an amazing, talented, and well-meshed team, the first game of the NBA finals this year suffered a drop in viewership of a third from last year: around four million Assuming this is not due to the resurgence of slightly lessthan-legal streaming websites, this is because the Nuggets are not the typical entertaining team to watch in the modern game: they lack the time-defying flying dunks by Lebron, the dancing Steph making inconceivable long-range shots, the sleek and explosive Tatum, the mesmerising James Harden, the terrifyingly athletic GreekFreak or even the breath-taking ‘Ja-droppers.’

It seems that there is little appeal for a talented big man who plays simple, easy basketball in a small-market team out of Colorado. A quick (though it never really is quick is it?) scroll through my For-Youpage on Tiktok ratifies this statement. There are never highlight reels of Jokić’s best layups, and though he occasionally enjoys the spotlight for a flashy and gravity-defying

pass, his style of play does not demand the audience of other stars in the league. Nevertheless, despite the lack of poorly synced Frank Ocean music over a compilation of his mesmerising basketball plays, Jokić plays a winning style of basketball, certainly displaying the strength of his brain muscles.

He goes out night after night, and he gets the job done, especially in Game One against the Heat, notching yet another dominant triple-double and cruising to an 11-point victory over the Heat.

The Nuggets certainly function like a well-oiled machine, and their admirable teamwork is undoubtedly what has led them to the NBA Finals.

Whether it was the often exaggerated high-altitude, fatigue from a tense seven games with Boston, or Jimmy Buckets suffering from a sore back after carrying in the last 18 games, the Heat looked out of their depth. Thus, much like the OxTube after a night out in London, they decided to not show up, leaving those expecting their success disappointed, out in the cold, and frantically emailing their tutor for an extension.

One thing is for sure, whilst first-round exists last year, the Nuggets are certainly a force to be reckoned with this year.

Having lost only three games in the entire playoffs, and coming fresh off of a sweep that humbled the unbearable Lakers fans, it is hard to see how Butler and the Heat will come between Joker and the Nugget’s first ring in franchise history.

Now, we can only hope that Jimmy Butler did not throw away hi “Four More Wins” tshirt after Game One as he can re-use it for Game Two and, at this rate, the rest of the series.

Summer VIIIs: an Oxford dream Yegor Kitsenko reflects on his unique experience in college rowing as a visiting student

10…5…3…2…1… BANG! The cannon goes off marking the beginning of the longest six minutes of my life. It’s the last race of the Summer Eights, the biggest intercollegiate rowing event of the year. Seated in the third seat of Pembroke’s M2 boat, I felt the adrenaline course through me. Every person in the boat trained for dozens of hours erging at the gym, rowing at Godstow, and the ISIS. All the training inevitably comes down to just 6 short minutes of immense adrenaline, power, cohesion and hopefully, celebration.

When I, a junior from Tufts, applied for the Visiting Student program at Oxford, I perused the extracurricular activities available to students, and intercollegiate rowing caught my eye instantly. Watching videos of “Torpids” from as early as 1932 by the British Pathé, I knew I wanted to be a part of the action and the legacy of rowing at Oxford.

After arriving at Oxford, I joined the first rowing “taster” session, and my expectations were blown away. My visiting student status never held me back for a moment: the boat club made me feel at home and at ease, I bonded with fellow rowers, senior and novice, and felt my bond and loyalty to the club grow.

Before I knew it, we were getting ready to row in the Christ Church Regatta, a head-onhead race for novice rowers.

It was my boat’s competitive rowing debut and in our first race it really showed! Right after the start, our stroke’s seat came loose, instigating a

panic as we saw him lift the seat above his head in despair, something that even most senior rowers have never witnessed. In the following races we became more composed and managed to finish fourth overall. I was eager to step up my game and do better in Hilary’s “Torpids”.

During Torpids, Pembroke M3 had a very successful campaign. We bumped three times, overtook the boat starting in front of us, and took headship among men’s third boats. We were also just centimeters from attaining the highest possible reward in intercollegiate rowing, the coveted “blades”, given out to crews who can successfully overtake 4 boats, at least one bump on each day of the regatta. The proximity of the reward left me yearning for more; I was eager for my promotion to M2.

Rowing in Hilary was inexplicably gorgeous. With flowers blooming and songbirds serenading, every stroke felt heavenly. I was now rowing for M2 bowside and ramping up my training for the “Eights”.

The dewy meadows of Medley kept my mind off academics, but the coxswain’s incessant reminder to “keep our head in the boat” didn’t let my thoughts run amok.

Before I knew it, there I was: my legs sprang into action as we accelerated up the Isis. Just ahead of us awaited Corpus Christi M1. The day before, we had “emptied our tanks” chasing them for the entire race, only managing to overlap with them just before the finish line.

It was an exhausting row-over, finishing in the same position