Marking a return to the Oxford operatic scene following their production of Le Nozze Di Figaro last year, the Oxford Student Opera Society was welcomed with open arms by audiences for their production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. To cut a long story short, the three-hour opera is centred around the character of Don Giovanni, a sexual predator who sleeps around with hundreds of women and eventually ends up being dragged down to hell for his many sins. It is the combination of Mozart’s witty music with Da Ponte’s libretto, which makes this work one of the most important operas ever written. Follow ..read more

Those chronically online probably had their social media feeds flooded by one thing last weekend (no, it’s not The Tortured Poets Department) – Coachella, the annual rock music festival, featuring big names and even bigger stages, lavish costumes, and influencers galore. Running for two consecutive weekends from 12 – 14 April and 19 – 21 April this year, Coachella remains one of the largest and most iconic music festivals in the world, averaging 125 000 daily attendees in recent years.  This year’s festival featured Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat and Tyler, The Creator as headliners, performing ..read more

British long-distance runner and four-time Olympic gold medallist, Sir Mo Farah, was among those initially listed to receive an Honorary degree from the University in 2024, but was absent from the final list announced this past week. The University of Oxford awards honorary degrees to “distinguished people” every year in a ceremony called Encaenia.  Published on February 29th, the 5413th edition of the Oxford University Gazette announced the internal resolution to approve “the conferment of the degree of doctor of science, honoris causa, upon Sir Mo Farah, CBE, former long-distance runne ..read more

Moving away to Oxford, away from home for the first time, was possibly the best thing that could have happened to me- for my sense of identity, culture, and maybe even my subpar cooking skills. Being away from a city that was catered to my needs, with halal stores readily accessible and Asian aunties equipped with samosas and pleasantries abundant, was a difficult change in pace but one I desperately needed. During my first year, and even now, in my second, Gol Guppay, a South-Asian snack, kept me going and helped me thrive. Gol Guppay, for those of you who haven’t tasted heaven in the form o ..read more

A new trend has taken over social media. Many users’ TikTok feeds are flooded with videos of women in flowery dresses making cereal from scratch or tenderly tending to an immaculate garden, with kids happily running amok in the background. These videos appear innocuous, and indeed quite idyllic and tranquil, at first glance. But beneath this façade lies a darker truth. These videos are part of the ‘tradwife’ trend, which refers to ‘traditional housewives’: stay-at-home mothers in heterosexual marriages who forgo their careers to raise children and manage the home. Their husbands are the bread ..read more

Oxford terms are intense, with eight weeks of term, tutorials, lectures, and extra-curricular events (not to mention collections and other stress-inducers). The promise of a few weeks of break in the vacations is often what motivates students through their work. Yet, of course, the University never ceases to remind us that the time between terms are vacations, not holidays, for we are to vacate our rooms and work is to be continued. Indeed, while academic work does (slowly) continue, much of Oxford’s student population also represents the University in its various Varsity Matches, and the Eas ..read more

Matthew Arnold once described Oxford as the city of dreaming spires. Thing is you can only dream, if you can sleep, which sometimes I can’t. I’ve suffered from bouts of insomnia for years and it has taught me a lot. I know every mindfulness technique in the book, my sleep hygiene is immaculate, and when being perfect doesn’t do the trick, I’ve found dozens of other ways to occupy the time without waking my flatmates.  Long before my first involuntarily sleepless night, I remember binge-reading the Twilight series secretly under the covers. Edward Cullen’s account of being alone after dar ..read more

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in six low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) in Oxford have been installed, but not yet activated. In March, Oxfordshire County Council announced the decision to replace traffic-calming bollards with ANPR cameras, but there was a delay in putting up the warning signs for motorists. The council then announced the cameras would be switched on in the middle of May, after previously saying that it would be “from the week beginning 29 April”. The council announced on the website that “the cameras have been successfully installed and we are now ens ..read more

“Wonderland doesn’t have to make sense.” So Ella Turner, producer of Wadham Drama Society’s Alice in Wonderland, tells me in an interview during the final stages of rehearsal. Walking out of the opening night show, it’s true that I could make very little sense of what I had just watched – and I’m sure that’s the point. The story obeys only dream logic, the watching experience like a fever dream in itself. Adapting Alice Produced by and starring students, Alice in Wonderland assembles a cast predominantly from Wadham, but also other colleges. The adaptation draws on Henry Savile Clarke’s music ..read more

On the 18th of March, significant queues formed outside Oxford Town Hall: it was none other than the Judith Butler, in conversation with Amia Srinivasan. Amidst a flurry of excitement, pre-signed hardback copies of Butler’s new book, Who’s Afraid of Gender?, were flying off tables. After much bubbling anticipation, the hall filled with thunderous applause as the speakers took to the stage. The event started with an eloquent introduction by Amia Srinivasan, a feminist titan in her own right whose book The Right to Sex won Blackwell’s Book of the Year in 2021. Srinivasan noted that Butler’s sem ..read more