Folksongs and Inclusion in Early Modernity: A Comparative Study

Chinese elites of the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644) were, like many writers elsewhere in the early modern era, obsessed with the ideal of authenticity (zhen). This showed nowhere more clearly than in their appreciation of folksongs. Supposedly composed by lower class people in the “streets and alleyways,” folksongs represented a form of poetic utterance free of the literary constraints that stifled elite writing. Praised and cited across a wide spectrum of literary opinion, folksongs appeared in collections by Yang Shen (Gujin fengyao,1543), Li Kaixian (Shijing yanci, c.

Beyond Boundaries: Developing Indigenous Intellectual History

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities of centring Indigenous thought in imperial, legal, and political history before 1900, contributing to the growing field of Global Indigenous Intellectual History. It addresses key issues, including the interpretation and representation of Indigenous concepts, the description of their norms, and the shift from Eurocentric to Indigenous perspectives.

Oxford Conservative Thought Reading Group, Meeting 1: What is Conservative Thought?

The Oxford Conservative Thought (OCT) Reading Group is a non-partisan group devoted to academic exploration of small-c conservative political thought. We welcome, and actively encourage, viewpoint diversity and constructive engagement across ideological divides (all good-willed participants are welcome!)

Please register here: https://forms.gle/W4tX5qFgSAU171ap9

Each week we read one assigned text, and we recommend more for anyone who is very keen!

The OCT meets weekly in term time on Fridays from 4-5:30pm.

You can view our reading list here:

Living with Digital Surveillance in China. Citizens’ Narratives on Technology, Privacy, and Governance

Digital surveillance is a daily and all-encompassing reality of life in China. This book explores how Chinese citizens make sense of digital surveillance and live with it. It investigates their imaginaries about surveillance and privacy from within the Chinese socio-political system. Based on in-depth qualitative research interviews, detailed diary notes, and extensive documentation, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre strives to ‘de-Westernize’ the internet and surveillance literature.

Iman Iftikhar

I am a second-year MPhil in Political Theory at Oxford, funded by a Rhodes Scholarship (Pakistan & Balliol 2024). My research examines the intersections of labour, gender, and political theory in colonial and 'post'-colonial South Asia, with particular attention to housework, caste, and kinship, and the conceptual distinction between productive and reproductive labour.

Lukas Seibert

Lukas Seibert is a DPhil (PhD) candidate in Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations. In his doctoral thesis, he investigates how transparency regulations affect legislators' extra-parliamentary activities and how remunerated side jobs influence their behaviour within parliament. By exploring these dynamics, his work sheds light on broader questions of transparency and accountability in legislative bodies.

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