English Faculty, University of Oxford

05/06/2026

Happy Pride Month from the English Faculty!

03/06/2026

26/05/2026

Join us for a special pre-screening podcast and discussion about Jordan Peele's 'Get Out' with Mike Muncer and Becky Darke of The Evolution of Horror and Leila Latif, cultural critic and film journalist for the BBC, Sight and Sound and The Guardian and host of Truth & Movies: A Little White Lies podcast.

🗓️ Sunday 31 May, 6pm
📍 Cinema, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities

All welcome! This event is part of a series of Black horror film screenings curated by Dr Christy Wensley taking place at the Schwarzman Centre Cinema and Ultimate Picture Palace this week 26 – 31 May: Black Horror in “Post-Racial” America: Fear on Film After Obama through Trump 2.0.

Book your tickets on the Schwarzman Centre website:

In the wake of Barack Obama’s historic presidential win in 2008, the “audacity of hope” led to the audacious claim of a “post-racial” America, in which the legacies of slavery and centuries of oppress…

26/05/2026

Join us for a pre-screening podcast and discussion about Get Out with and of and , cultural critic and film journalist for the Total Film, the BBC, Sight and Sound and The Guardian and host of Truth & Movies: A Little White Lies podcast (). This event is complimentary for ticket holders for the film screening.

Featuring landmark film Get Out, a suspense-filled horror-thriller directed by Jordan Peele that explores racism, privilege and paranoia with biting social satire. Part of Black Horror in “Post-Racial” America: Fear on Film After Obama through Trump 2.0.

📆 Sunday 31 May, 6pm
📍 Cinema, Schwarzman Centre, Oxford
🎟️ Book tickets via the link in bio.

This event is part of a series of Black horror film screenings curated by Dr Christy Wensley taking place at the Schwarzman Centre Cinema and Ultimate Picture Palace this week 26 – 31 May: Black Horror in “Post-Racial” America: Fear on Film After Obama through Trump 2.0.

In the wake of Barack Obama’s historic presidential win in 2008, the “audacity of hope” led to the audacious claim of a “post-racial” America, in which the legacies of slavery and centuries of oppression, segregation, criminalization, and violence could be solved in one election. In 2017, at the start of Trump’s first presidency, Jordan Peele’s Get Out confronted the myth of the “post-racial” nation and revitalized horror cinema, making manifest anxieties about race and race relations in the United States’ history and present.

Screening a decade of Black horror, including Peele’s Get Out and Us (2019), Boots Riley’s genre-bending sci-fi satire, Sorry To Bother You (2018), Nia DaCosta’s Candyman (2021) and the film it reimagines, Bernard Rose’s adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story about class in England, Candyman (1992) and 2025’s Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s Oscar-winning triumph, this week-long series explores the genre’s capacity to thrill audiences, experiment with form, and resist power.

Book your tickets now: https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/theme/black-horror-in-post-racial-america-l2gp

19/05/2026

The first film season at the Schwarzman Centre Cinema is here 🎥

Black Horror in “Post-Racial” America: Fear on Film After Obama through Trump 2.0 brings together some of the most urgent and influential films of the last decade. From 'Get Out' and 'Us' to 'Candyman', 'Sorry To Bother You', and 'Sinners', the season explores how filmmakers use horror, satire, and suspense to examine race, violence, identity and power in contemporary America.

Presented in partnership with Ultimate Picture Palace, and curated by Dr Christy Wensley, Faculty of English.

📆 From 26-31 May
🎟️ Explore the full programme and book tickets: https://www.schwarzmancentre.ox.ac.uk/theme/black-horror-in-post-racial-america-l2gp

The Ultimate Picture Palace (UPP)
English Faculty, University of Oxford

13/05/2026

Join us for the next English Faculty / Oxford World’s Classics Shakespeare webinar on 1 June at 6pm!

In this webinar series, Shakespeare expert Professor Emma Smith discusses a different Oxford World’s Classics Shakespeare title each month. Emma will be in conversation with the writers of the new introductions specially commissioned for this series, discussing the play and how we might approach it differently in the twenty-first century.

This month, Emma will be discussing Arden of Faversham with Dr Iman Sheeha, Senior Lecturer in Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at Brunel University of London.

The discussion will be followed by a Q&A.

This is a public event and everyone is welcome. Tickets are free but registration is required. Register via Eventbrite and you will be sent a link to the Zoom webinar.

https://shakespeare-webinar-arden-of-faversham.eventbrite.co.uk

05/05/2026

This year’s O’Donnell Lecture in Celtic Studies will be given by Dr Aaron Griffith (Utrecht University) on 8 May at 5.30pm at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in room 00.063 (on the ground floor).

While our Old Irish sources attested in contemporary manuscripts show remarkable uniformity in their language, they nonetheless show some degree of variation. Indeed, there has been a recent burst of activity investigating exactly this issue. While a good deal of variation has been identified, we are not able to classify much of it with any degree of confidence. That is to say, is it diachronic, diatopic, diastratic or of some other type? This talk examines the state of the question and offers possible ways forward with some preliminary results from recent work.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. All welcome!

Tickets are free but booking is required (link in bio)

https://english.web.ox.ac.uk/events

01/05/2026

Join us for this year's O'Donnell Lecture in Studies:

‘Old : plenty of variation, but of what kind?’
Dr Aaron Griffith (Utrecht University)
🗓 Friday, 8 May at 5.30pm
📍 Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford

All are welcome! Register:

This year's O'Donnell Lecture in Celtic Studies will be given by Dr Aaron Griffith (Utrecht University) on 8 May at 5.30pm at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in room 00.063 (on the ground floor).