Tag Archives: Oxford

Tuesday- July 3rd

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Another relentlessly sunny day in Oxford!  The students are getting the entirely wrong idea of the weather here.  I long for rain.

Today we discussed a provocative chapter centering around Alice in Wonderland and the creator, Charles Dodgson.  The author clearly loathes him and underscores his seemingly unnatural desire for young girls… to photograph naked.  This took us to the west side Oxford to Ports Meadow, up to Godstow with its medieval miracle legends and down through Jericho and the OUP. Our discussion themes were on rowing and competition among the colleges but the big theme was that of art and morality.  Should we engage with art–music, paintings, literature–written by people who are immoral and live unethical lives?  We were deeply divided on this one.  On one side it was argued that what art would be left?  Does not the art work take on a life of its own and survive on its own merit, or not?  But the other side highlighted that in attending to such art we are honoring or at the very least accepting the artist him or her self.  And for artists who are alive, we are giving them money and glory–even as they do awful things.  Chris Brown featured in our discussion.  This led to a much larger exploration of where morality comes from.  Alas, we ran out of time and I cannot offer a definitive response.  But spoiler alert:  trust neither one’s own self nor one’s society to always be right.

Gate to All Souls’ College

Later in the afternoon we had an official walking tour of central Oxford with Lucy, a knowledgable guide who offered delightful tidbits of information about how landmarks inspired writers like C.S. Lewis but also how these very landmarks now mirror back the great writers in grotesques added to the Bodleian or busts in Exeter Chapel.

Did this faun inspire Narnia?

 

 

 

 

Friday June 29th

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Today we got our classroom back and we met as scheduled in the morning.  Two of our cohort did not show up which worried us but they were OK in the end.  Hmm…

Jericho- the council houses

Our chapter was inspired by the Inspector Morse mysteries.  I have watched all of them and loved every one, including the two new spin-off series, one featuring Sergeant Lewis on his own and the other a young Morse set in the 1950s Oxford.  Our presenters rightly pointed out that there is not much about the TV series in the book but rather a tour of north Oxford, including four of the 5 women’s colleges, Keble College, and the Museum of Natural History. Since we had visited that yesterday the images of place were clear in our collective heads.

We did have a lively discussion on a number of topics:

  • the appearance of women’s’ colleges and why education for women was so controversial; while the colleges were founded in the last quarter of the nineteen century, no students could earn a degree until 1920!
  • the meaning of free speech and the parameters for discourse across differences
  • the immigrant experience and how the US has always been suspicious of those coming into our country from other places, including the experience of many of our own ancestors
  • language as a tool for inclusion or exclusion

We had hoped to visit the Museum of the City of Oxford but were disappointed to find that it is closed until 2020.

Walking along the Oxford canal is an adventure, albeit a warm one in today’s hot and sunny Oxford.

 

Monday June 25th-planning day

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gay pride flag over Magdalen

Today we convened class and first order of business was to choose our chapters and individuals who would be representing Oxford to our group.  The students’ choices were:

Cardinal Newman
C.S., Lewis
Archbishop Cranmer
King Charles I
Shelley
Alice in wonderland  and
Inspector Morse

wired bird in the rose garden

Their task for the afternoon was to begin working on their team presentations and plot out where in Oxford they want to take the group.  Fictive or real, each of these individuasl is associated with places around Oxford and they contribute to our concept of the Oxford Experience.

Today was another extraordinarily lovely day for roaming around the town.  While the main streets [High Street, Broad Street, Cornmarket Street] are packed, it does not take much to veer off into narrow side streets and find a different Oxford–an Oxford of a countertenor practicing a song, undergraduates walking in their robes, empty spaces where only ghosts seem to linger.