Category: Oxford

Barring a few brief periods, I have now been living in university owned residences since September 2001: that is to say, five and a half years. First, it was a shared room in Totem (originally with a roommate who is now doing the M.Phil in Economics at Oxford, though who I did not speak to between when he moved out in December 2001 and when I first saw him here). Then, there was a single room in Totem Park and two stints in Fairview Crescent, one living with intolerable hockey players and another with a much more compatible crew. Between the Totem and Fairview periods, I lived for six weeks in the residence of L’Université de Montreal, while doing the Summer Language Bursary Program.

From September 2005 to April 2006, I lived in Library Court – part of Wadham College, Oxford – before moving out, largely on account of bad vegetarian food and inadequate and filthy kitchen facilities. Since then, I’ve been living with Alex and Kai in a flat below the Latin American Studies Centre, with a window looking out into our extremely large back yard, in north Oxford. The whole building belongs to St. Antony’s College, and it is to them that our termly payment of fine silks, wine, and a few head of cattle must be made.

On the basis of my experience, I can authoritatively reveal the best and worst things about institutionally owned residences. The best thing is the experience of living with fellow students, though, as the hockey debacle illustrates, that is hardly enough to make them kindred spirits. Also appealing is the cost structure: not so much that they are cheap, but that the prices are stable, you don’t have to haggle, and internet access and utilities are virtually always included. The worst things, from my point of view, are not having enough space for your books, living with walls so thin as to not muffle conversations at normal speaking volume (an education in itself, especially in Fairview), and the general requirement that you move quite frequently, further restricting the extent to which any space really becomes your own.

Within ten years, it is my hope that I will have a place to live where I have the space and confidence in long-term residence to justify unpacking and cataloging the books I have been picking up over these last two decades or so. That, and the chance to sleep on something other than a cheap single mattress. They never offer much in the way of back support.

I made a first foray into the Oxford Union tonight. I really expected the whole place to resemble the smoky room where I imagine the Suez Canal seizure plan of 1956 to have been formulated. While the ground floor library had approximately the right feel, it was not, in fact, quite so ostentatious.

That said, it is probable that we of no political influence simply cannot access the parts of the building where future prime ministers are selected over cigars and snifters of brandy. I doubt that President Musharraf spent the time after his recent presentation in any of the rooms we ducked into.

Overall, the visit made me feel vindicated about choosing not to pay their ridiculous membership price.

What can international relations contribute to the understanding of science and policymaking? This is a section that needs to get written, for my introduction, and its one that involves a bit of fundamental contemplation of the discipline.

Last night, I got into a discussion with the warden of Wadham College and a trio of fellows about my lack of faith in the concept of ‘social science.’ In essence, this is a lack of faith in the possibility of approaching truth, in the study of politics and related fields. One can become convincing and powerful, but one can never be authoritatively ‘right’ when speaking about morality in warfare, the consequences of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, or the economic effects of NAFTA. Importantly, one also cannot be qualitatively as ‘right’ when answering such questions as one can when dealing with properly scientific ones.

I don’t know if it is a reflection of the kind of people the discipline attracts, or whether there is some other explanation, but it seems to me that IR is more concerned with action than with understanding. Interaction with knowledge is certainly important, but that is largely because such interaction is a necessary part of empowerment. Perhaps the reason for which we are given such impossibly long reading lists to skim is because we are just picking out those bits that will sharpen our ability to do whatever it is we wish to do in the world.

[Update: 1:30am] Perhaps I should be clear: this is one of those “use of the blog as a place for speculative thinking that might generate interesting responses” kind of post. Purposive, rather than simply analytic in itself, that is.

On the occasions when I do see members of the program (fairly rare now that it has completely broken down into small groups working on the optional papers), it seems that everyone is caught up in the double effort of finishing the thesis and finding something worthwhile to do when this all ends. With the last day for possible viva exams now six months off, minds are getting focused. With the more stressful elements of research degrees making themselves known, the general enthusiasm for the D.Phil has been waning. Many people who seemed gung-ho about carrying on to convert their M.Phil to a doctorate in two additional years are now leaning towards other uses for their time.

This is a bit contradictory, really, given that it is precisely the people who want to carry on the for the D.Phil who need to worry most about their theses. The chances of anyone at a different school giving it such a careful looking over (or even any examination at all) are a lot lower than those of Oxford taking it strongly into account, when considering you as a doctoral candidate.

In any case, I am off to work on my potted history of the Kyoto Protocol.

This afternoon, I spent a bit of time wandering along the canals that encircle Oxford. Their relative abandonment during the winter makes them a good place for general contemplation, even if the schedule of classes and other projects makes you feel guilty about time spent so idly.