The Isis goes to the Presidents’ Summit
Last week, three unpresidential Isis writers visited the Presidents’ Summit, an AI-themed event for presidents of Oxford University societies. They had thoughts, and a lot of free drinks. Only the thoughts are below, entirely human-written. We write for free: you can’t replace us with ChatGPT if
In conversation with: Merve Emre
Merve Emre has a CV to tremble before. She is the author of three award-winning books, is a contributing writer at the New Yorker, regularly travels the world speaking at conferences and universities, interviews authors of the likes of Sally Rooney and Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, is the Shapiro-Silver
Being seen to be seeing someone: Oxford’s privacy problems
When I lived in college, the walk from the big medieval doors to my room when I brought someone home made me feel more naked than any ensuing level of undress could. From the glaring clinical light and audience of paid spectators in the Porters’ lodge to the unlucky coincidence that the moment you
Icon of the Week: Postgrads
The Oxford postgraduate is a curious, often overlooked, creature. We scarper the halls of each college, taking up library space that rightfully belongs to nineteen-year-olds with a Bridge hangover. If you think there’s not much that separates your own undergraduate experience from your long
PRESSURE POINT: Beware the new theocrats
Theocracy has a new frontman in Ahmed al-Sharaa. The overthrow of longstanding dictator Bashar al-Assad saw the replacement of a nominally secular government with an elite who have spent much of their careers waging jihad in the region. But for all the blood-infused devotion usually associated with
Arcane: Everyone is horny and no one is class-conscious
In his culture-defining article, ‘Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny’, RS Benedict writes of the infamous shower scene in Starship Troopers (1997): “No one looks at each other. No one flirts. A room full of beautiful, bare bodies, and everyone is only horny for war.” Nearly 30
Ecology of a scene, or Why Oxford is, and always will be, a wasteland of musical creativity
Wherever you find one, a music scene manifests as a live, twitching corpus, comprised of a vital collection of enveloping and intersecting components—most of which the city of dreaming spires lacks. It is this intricate network of connections and contradictions that give a scene its life, d
Who cares about the Oscars, anyway?
Yesterday’s Oscars brought a shiny, glamorous conclusion to awards season. In the current political climate, it can feel odd watching rich actors fight for golden statues in months-long press tours. I, for one, have lost count of how many celebrities I have watched eat chicken on YouTube in the la