Seeing Double
Squirrelled away in Room 65 of the Ashmolean Museum are two remarkable landscapes. The paintings hang side by side in the Pissarro Gallery, surrounded by a collection of nineteenth-century pictures, and have done so for over a decade. They are, to wit, Camille Pissarro’s View from my Window and Vi
LOOKING BEYOND BORDERS WITH ARMS OUTSTRETCHED
By virtue of its own hybridity as a manifesto, invitation, and poem, Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera reimagines political borders; it observes their artificiality and porousness. Written in Spanish and English, Borderlands is perceptive and analytical; deconstructive and didactic. Anzal
Finding my way back to the nightingale
The exalted song of the nightingale has long haunted the poetic imagination. Though I have never heard a nightingale sing, I have read its lamenting melodies in the lines of Ovid, Keats, and Coleridge. The real song remains elusive, yet somehow still a familiar refrain, and I wonder whether it is po
How a country’s culture of discontent reflects on the state of their democracy
It is only in the last few years that Britain has reimagined itself as a protesting nation. For Generation Z, the solidarity shown against the Iraq War is accessible not through social memory per se, but historical media. What has in fact revitalised the country’s relationship to acts of demonstra
Oxford’s Identity Politics and JCR BAME Officers: Effective in raising awareness, or an exploitation of ‘emotional labour’?
PART I: The Difficulties of Anti-Racism within the Framework of Oxford Bureaucracy The Junior Common Room (JCR) Committee, akin to an undergraduate student council within each college, essentially upholds the role of overseeing student welfare, representing their views, and voicing their concerns. T
Ghosts of Tradition: Past, Present, and Future
I’d never given much thought to tradition before. When I had, I saw it as somewhat redundant – rubbing shoulders with inflexibility, with conservatism – and I assumed that the people around me shared similar views. Tradition didn’t seem like something of particular importance to our
The True Cost of Porn: The Monopolisation of the Porn Industry
Open a private browsing tab. Turn on your VPN. Type ‘ethical porn’ into the search bar. Press enter. Try hardcore porn, softcore porn, or just porn. No, it’s not just your browsing habits. Every time it’s the same: Pornhub wins the race to the top of the page. The second, third, fourth (an
In the Path of a Distant Star: in search of Allende’s lost generation
In late December 2021, following a long nail-biting campaign, insurgent left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric was announced as the victor in Chile’s presidential election. Boric, a former student leader, swept the polls roundly defeating far-right candidate José Antonio Kast, becoming the youngest pr
Prison Pen Pals
Entering the WriteAPrisoner.com website, the user is greeted by a seemingly endless list of prisoners. Advertising to potential penpals with a photo and a short biography, these inmates are looking to bridge the gap to the outside world and stave off feelings of isolation. Unable to reach out themse