Description
Uncomfortable Oxford is an academic-led organisation that researches and runs critical thinking tours of Oxford. Tours are discussion-based, and designed to raise questions about historical memory, wealth inequality, race, gender, and class discrimination, and local connections to empire. Our tours are a uniquely engaging experience, ideal for participants who are interested in an educational and insightful activity.
We run seven different walking tours of Oxford:
Our Original Tour: The perfect introductory tour of Oxford, this tour engages with politics of memory in the city and university, and covers histories of empire, class divides, gender discrimination and highlights how these legacies have left an enduring impact on our modern lives.
Hidden Histories: This tour uncovers the hidden stories of gendered communities from the past. This guided journey around Oxford highlights the ways women have historically occupied city spaces, the shaping of masculinities, and the role of queer identities.
Follow the Money: This tour highlights the University of Oxford’s relationship with contentious sources of revenue. It explores controversial funding sources that have given their name to buildings. Participants will be challenged to explore the complexities of financial considerations and engage in conversations about both historic and contemporary wealth distribution networks.
Medical History Tour</b?: The history of medicine is always a bit uncomfortable. This tour walks you through medical history in the city from medieval plagues, to the founding of the medical school, and the first trials of penicillin. Far from a straightforward linear progression, Oxford's medical history is a complicated conversation about health equity, medical ethics, and continued clashes over the control of the body.
Getting Medieval: Modern media has fostered the stereotype that people in the Middle Ages were uniquely backwards, superstitious, violent, dirty, and barbaric, but our tour covers histories of prejudice and bloodshed, while debunking the myths of ‘medieval’ times.
Oxford and Empire: A tour on the intricate relationship between the University of Oxford and the British Empire, and how imperial needs shaped the creation of departments and fields of study of the University, while the colonies offered career paths and extended the networks of Oxford alumni. This tour takes place partly outside and partly in the Natural History Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Uncomfortable Ashmolean: Join us for a critical walk through the Ashmolean Museum, analysing exhibits, labels, and artefacts. In this tour, we discuss the origins of the museum as a colonial ‘cabinet of curiosities’ and raise questions about the purpose of museums today and the role they play in modern controversies over disputed heritage. This tour takes place wholly inside the Ashmolean Museum.
You can book a ticket for any of our tours by visiting our website, uncomfortableoxford.com. You can also arrange a private group tour for any day and time to suit you by emailing us at bookings@uncomfortableoxford.com.
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