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!)

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

Week 4 focuses on conservative views of migration, with a reading from Eric Kaufmann.

Find our reading list here:

—> bit.ly/OCTMT25

‘Fattism' has been described as the last acceptable prejudice. Discrimination on the grounds of weight is experienced regularly by women and men in relation to employment as well as access to goods and services. As I show in this article, it can also be seen as a form of intersectional discrimination. Yet a legal remedy for weight discrimination exists in just a few countries.

Join Dr Max Morris for an event to celebrate the publication of Not Sex Work - Queer Intimacy, Post-identity, and Incidental Encounters in the Digital Era (Routledge, 2025), in collaboration with the Oxford Sociology Network and the Centre for Law, Criminology and Social Justice Research.

Is China building a rival institutional order to challenge and potentially replace the existing one? In the decades following the Cold War, the United States played a leading role in creating the institutions of what became known as the liberal international order (LIO). Since then, China’s global profile has risen while the United States has reduced its commitment to global leadership. With growing evidence of a hegemonic transition, observers are increasingly debating whether Beijing is working to overturn the existing order by fostering rival institutional structures.

How do citizens in the United States and China evaluate the fairness of the international system and the impartiality of its legal institutions? As the two countries vie for global leadership, public perceptions of the existing order and visions for its reform can shape global trajectories by influencing support for or resistance to their governments’ efforts to reshape world order.

This seminar Q&A between Professor Jane Green and The Rt Hon. Lord Andrew Tyrie, will give students, and all interested in the UK Parliament, an expert insider’s answer to questions covered in the PPE and MPhil British politics syllabi, with first-hand insight from a former MP and now member of the House of Lords, described in 2013 as “the most powerful backbencher in the House of Commons”. Audience members will have a wide-ranging opportunity to ask questions.

This event will explore the wave of recent major political protests across several Asian countries. We hope to cover the themes of authoritarianism, populism, corruption, dynastic politics and crisis of political authority and legitimacy as well as intergenerational inequality, discontent surrounding labour, employment and education, and the role of social media and new political idioms. The discussion will include: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

Programme

9.15 am - 12.30 pm

Those who seek to increase electoral participation appear to face a dilemma. Prior work finds that Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) interventions are more effective on individuals with ex-ante higher voting propensities and might hence deepen turnout inequality. In this paper, we formalise the link between differential mobilisation effects and turnout inequality, introduce a novel Gini-based turnout inequality measure, and comprehensively answer if and when GOTV interventions increase or decrease turnout inequality.

Lea Ypi reads from her new book Indignity: A Life Reimagined and reflects on the enduring legacies of migration, displacement, and forced removal. Beginning with the story of her grandmother in the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, she explores how past experiences of exile and resettlement help us confront the moral and political challenges of migration in our own time.