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1 month ago | 
cherwell.org | Morien Robertson
I still remember the first time I saw Anselm Kiefer’s work. I was in the Pompidou Centre, Paris, and I’d been stumbling around the seemingly endless number of rooms for hours. I was in the state where you’ve taken in so much art that nothing excites – another room of cubism leaves you unmoved; you’re oversaturated with abstraction. Then I stepped into another room, scarcely noticing the change, and stopped straight away. It was a plain room with some glass cabinets containing submarines.
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1 month ago | 
cherwell.org | Morien Robertson
Essay crisis, bad tutorial, no sleep. Everyone’s had a time when you’d really rather be anywhere than Oxford. The rigorous academic attention and miniature city size mean that Oxford can feel like a bubble which you would really prefer to just burst. How can you deal with this? Let’s assume that going home is off the table – unmissable class the next day, extortionate train fares, or an overwhelming fatigue. What to do then?
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Mar 24, 2025 | 
oxfordpoliticalreview.com | Morien Robertson
In his classic 1790 text, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke writes:‘To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ, as it were) of public affections.
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Mar 16, 2025 | 
cherwell.org | Morien Robertson
‘Hamlet: “O’, that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw…” [Throws grenade at helicopter. Explodes. Hamlet’s pulverised body is thrown backwards by the implosion.]’Don’t quite remember this scene from the bard’s masterpiece? You won’t forget it after watching Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s spectacular docu-drama about the staging of a production of Hamlet inside the game of ‘Grand Theft Auto Online’ during COVID.
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Feb 6, 2025 | 
cherwell.org | Morien Robertson
Internship pressure is intense in Oxford, but it’s not felt uniformly – demand is concentrated in a few select sectors which have been favoured by structural economic changes. Whilst some people love their weeks in the office, for many it’s just an endless stepping stone to the next thing. With the sky outside already dark, the blue and white of the Oxford Careers Service lights up my room.
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Dec 12, 2024 | 
oxfordpoliticalreview.com | Morien Robertson
Do events unfold with purpose or are they merely outcomes of chance? Can we understand the complexity inherent in the world around us or are all attempts at prediction, learning and theorising hopeless efforts to climb over impassable epistemic barriers? Can we be said to have meaningful control over our lives and the world?
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
cherwell.org | Morien Robertson
This summer’s protests have pushed university free speech policies to their breaking point. Scenes of police being on college campuses across the US have sparked fears of overreach. At the same time, universities need to balance students’ fundamental right to protest with their ability to fulfil their function as centres for learning and research.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
cherwell.org | Morien Robertson
Lady Elish Angiolini is a distinguished lawyer, having been Lord Advocate of Scotland from 2006 to 2011, and currently occupying the position of Lord Clerk Register. She has been prominent in the news recently as the chair of the Sarah Everard inquiry. Lady Angiolini is also a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and the beloved Principal of St Hugh’s College. Cherwell spoke to her in her office in St Hugh’s.
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Oct 12, 2024 | 
cherwell.org | Morien Robertson
Will Heaven Fall on Us? A Béla Tarr Retrospective, which aired in cinemas this summer, confirms the status of the Hungarian director as an auteur with a monumental vision. Watching the five films of the retrospective, with a total run time of 981 minutes (16.4 hours), is not an easy task: Tarr is a demanding director, with infamously long shots which can test even the most seasoned cinephile.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
cherwell.org | Faye Chang |Morien Robertson |Alex Prvulovich
Irene Tracey is used to doing uncontroversial good. She has dedicated her remarkable career to studying pain, poring over MRI machines with the goal of understanding and preventing the phenomenon. She’s a fierce advocate for women in STEM, involved in several mentoring programmes. In January 2023, she went from Warden of Merton to Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor, the first state-educated and second female one in the University’s history, and seemed set to continue her success.
