Sexist politics, silencing, and predatory tutors: Oxford feminists’ battle to be heard
Throughout her life, Judith Okely has experienced institutional misogyny first-hand. When she was at secondary school, she was told by her headmistress that it would be inappropriate for her to apply to Oxford. Not because of academic inferiority—but because she was pretty and, therefore, marriage
Old English, Old Oxford
Two months ago, I found myself at an English formal with the rest of the English freshers at my college, and all our tutors. I imagine the nerves—as well as the prospect of free wine—must have got to me, so I ended up fairly tipsy by about an hour into the evening. I was sat […]
Letter to the Isis: #1
The existence of an academic elite at Oxford can never be justified unless it is open to students of every background – The Isis, October 1978. This is a statement made in the first article of the 1,684th edition of The Isis, and despite being published nearly forty years ago, it still rings painf
Exorcising Mississippi’s Cemeteries
“Mississippi had no art except in cemeteries”. These words of Eudora Welty’s, a comment on her photographs of graveyards around the state, have strangely buried themselves in me. It is not that the general sentiment is unfamiliar. Southern artists frequently motioned towards themselves as awkw
Oxford students angered by decline in standards of homophobic abuse in tutorials
Students at the University of Oxford have been speaking out against the serious decline in standards of homophobic abuse during tutorials. ‘In my first Physics tutorial of last term my tutor just made a few underhand comments about lifestyle choices and some bad jokes which involved homophobic slu
Shakespeare and Shoes
As a schoolboy in Cape Town in the 1960s, I lapped up books by the American satirical writer, Richard Armour, the author who once reminded us that libraries are “places where you lower your voice and raise your mind”. Although the racially-segregated libraries of apartheid South Africa symboli
Far Away
What are you doing just now? Perhaps you’re rinsing a coffee cup Warm water caressing your hands Sea waves lap over ankles Deliberately digging your toes into the sand Speaking with a relative And something they say confirms that hope or fear you have about these days. Sunk in the sofa with siblin