At the same time as the second chapter of my thesis is firming up, my initiative to visit and photograph all 39 colleges is proceeding apace. Today, I visited Somerville College (where Margaret Thatcher read chemistry, a factor that may have contributed to her eventual strong support for CFC regulation, despite her ideological leanings) as [...]

A student housing vignette
When one of your circuit breakers blows, you need to go ask your landlords for the key to the cupboard where the switches are. When the light bulb in one room burns out, you use candles until the college replaces it.
The first, you can really do very little about. The second reflects [...]

One of the most telling things about a person’s personality may be which places they choose to do the masses of reading meant to dominate the lives of an Oxford student. There is a certain sort that appreciates the reading rooms in the Bodleian (and another sort forced there due to the location of necessary [...]

The identification of an environmental ‘problem’ is not a single crystalline moment of transition, from ignorance to understanding. Rather, it is ambiguous, contingent, and dependent upon the roles and modes of thinking of the actors involved, and values that inform judgments. Rather like Thomas Kuhn’s example about the discovery of oxygen (with different people accessing [...]

As places in Oxford go, the Botanic Gardens across from Magdalen College are a real jewel. They are peaceful, beautiful, intellectually engaging, and easily capable of yielding dozens of good photos, even if you have been there many times before.
During Oxford’s long winter, the greenhouses make for a particularly nice contrast both with the world [...]

Members of the M.Phil in International Relations program who are taking the international law option may appreciate knowing that I have categorized and listed exam questions from the last three years on the wiki.