VIDES

Free online journal

Interdisciplinary essays produced by our MSt in Literature and Arts students

An annual online journal, produced by students on the Oxford Master's in Literature and Arts, VIDES is a free volume of interdisciplinary essays which explore a wide range of topics through the analysis and comparison of two related textual or visual documents. 

Students produce VIDES as part of their work on the course, in their second year as part of the preparation for the dissertation. Collaboratively, students are divided into small committees who are then responsible for peer-reviewing, proof-reading, copy-editing and designing the journal.

VIDES means 'you see' in Latin, but in this context also stands as an acronym: 'Volume of Interdisciplinary Essays'.

Vides 2024

VIDES 2024 - Volume 12 features 13 short essays. It showcases the remarkable ingenuity and variety of the work being done by students in the second year of the programme. There is something here to capture the interest of every curious reader, with articles exploring the Arthurian tradition, the history of British exploration and imperialism, issues of race, gender, and sexuality, the history of science, and even the history of time itself.

Each of the articles in this volume focuses on two artefacts, a word we use to encompass not just objects that might be found in a museum but all kinds of products of human endeavour, including objects, images, and texts. Students are asked to choose two artefacts of different kinds and analyse them alongside each other, showing how they shed light on larger historical conditions or developments.

It's all here, and all freely available online for you to read.

VIDES 2024 - Volume 12 (pdf)

Previous volumes

Earlier volumes of VIDES are also available here: