Students from across Oxford University explore the topics in history that interest them. Crossing and playing with disciplinary boundaries, OHR’s Curiosity Column brings you the history that truly resonates with students.
- Lavender Scare: The Forgotten Side of McCarthyism
As a historian, the two areas of history that have always fascinated and intrigued me have been the Cold War and twentieth-century United States. - The Female Husband: Colonel Barker on the (News)stand
Pádraig Nolan continues his Colonel Barker series, focusing on his trials and how they allow us to understand 20th-century gender constructs. - Narrating nationalism in the oldest surviving major piece of French literature
Isobel Cree examines early medieval nationalism in La Chanson de Roland, one of the oldest surviving works of French literature. - The Transmasculine Fascist: Colonel Barker Joins the National FascistiPádraig Nolan examines Colonel Barker’s fraudulent involvement with British fascism and the conflict of trans- and hyper-masculinity.
- The Man: We Need to Talk About Colonel BarkerPádraig Nolan examines the legendary figure of Colonel Barker, transmasculine con-artist, fascist and performer.
- What’s in a Name? The problem of how to study LGBTQ+ History
Charles West discusses labels and their role in studying LGBTQ+ history in the latest instalment of his column. - Middlebrow Highs #2: Barbara Pym – The Drama of the Prosaic
Seán Gibbons discusses the work of Barbara Pym in his column Middlebrow Highs. - Coherence and Communication in Medieval French Literature: Narrative distortion in the Vulgate CycleThe Vulgate Cycle is the first French Arthurian cycle in prose (c. 1215-35). A cycle is a series of texts about common characters, who are generally adapted from myth or history. I chose the cycle’s narrative for my dissertation topic and soon spent days trying to understand the variations between rather inaccessible editions, let alone …
- A Tolerated Lodger: The duality of Medieval Cats
Harriet Carter discusses our attitudes towards our small furry friends, and how they compare to medieval views on cats. - LGBTQ+ History: LGBTQ+ Rights before StonewallCharlie West discusses LGBTQ+ Rights before Stonewall through the lens of two LGBTQ+ academics in the West.
- Soviet Stories: The Evolution of Dacha Culture
Sophia Maisashvili introduces her column ‘Soviet Stories’ by examining the impact of dachas, particularly in soviet satellite states. - Middlebrow Highs: a column introduction
Seán Gibbons introduces us to the first instalment of his column, Middlebrow Highs, discussing the work of 20th century ‘middlebrow’ writers. - “A World Problem”: Smethwick, Malcolm X and the British Civil Rights Movement
TW: racism, racial slurs Marshall Street was an unassuming, unexceptional street in Smethwick, West Midlands. Its terraced houses were not particularly striking or notable. The declining industrial town resembled many others across the country, facing a myriad of social and economic challenges. But Marshall Street was at the centre of a thick hostile local and … - The Architecture of Remembrance: A short history of the method of loci
Archie Phillpotts takes us through a history of the method of loci, or the mind palace technique, and its prestige throughout the ages. - ‘Workers of the World, Awaken!’: Medieval Dreams and the Peasants’ Revolt
‘During this time of sleep surely it is not my true self, Lord my God?’ (Saint Augustine, Confessions) Dreams occupy an uneasy status in contemporary society. On the one hand, they are dismissed. Those that earnestly believe dreams can predict the future or put us into contact with otherworldly forces are labelled as superstitious. As … - What is Juneteenth to an American?
Mia Thwaites discusses the history of Juneteenth and how the federal holiday may contribute to racial reconciliation. - Looking beyond Brittain and Nightingale
John Stewart sheds light on the reality of nurses in World War One, looking beyond the influences of Vera Brittain and Florence Nightingale. - Tbilisi: Lucky Number 27
“The story of Tbilisi is one of constant adaptation and rebirth.” - On Old English Translation: Wulf’s Tale
Yasmin Howells’ creative translation of Wulf and Eadwacer, an Old English Poem found in the Book of Exeter. - Warsaw: Life Imitates Art
Maciej Nowakowski opens his ‘Cities of Hope’ series by looking at Warsaw, “the Paris of the North”. - 100 Years of Northern Ireland
“Northern Ireland’s journey over the past one hundred years has been one of devastation and pain, but also one of cooperation and hope.” - Bad Gays: Issues with HIV activism in gay historiography
Eliott Thompson discusses the issues with HIV activism throughout history, focusing on the role of AZT and Gays against Genocide. - Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game
“From governments and organisations…to individuals…sporting events have held the power to change the world on a political level.” - Drifter: A Creative Translation based on ‘The Wanderer’
Yasmin Howells discusses creative translation of Old English within a historical context, looking at 9th to 10th century poem ‘The Wanderer’. - December 1973: Christmas in Crisis?
OLIVER SHAW writes about the difficult winter of 1973-74 in Britain – and how glam rock came to the rescue. - The Unhealed Wounds: The Catholic Church and the Holocaust
In March 1998, a Vatican commission on Jewish-Catholic relations published We Remember: A Reflection of the Shoah. The delicate document went further than any previous statement to recognise the Catholic Church’s passivity during the wartime genocide of European Jews, acknowledging ‘past errors and infidelities’ from the faithful led astray by anti-Semitism and the ‘heavy burden of … - Oxford: the Museum, the City, the University
As a child, I had a recurring fantasy of London’s Natural History Museum at night. Their work complete and the sun now down, I saw the curators gathering beneath the museum’s vaulted roof to lay a table and feast amongst the exhibits. This idyllic vision was reawakened during Hilary term when I took the Collections/Displays … - Women and the Anti-Psychiatry Movement
Molly Archer-Zeff discusses how we should be looking for female voices outside of the 1960s anti-psychiatry movement.