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 2023
VIDES 2023 - Volume 11 features 24 short essays. Through comparing artefacts across art, literature, history, material culture and philosophy and considering how these inform one another, these essays explore a range of topics in a truly interdisciplinary way.
The articles here span the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, covering topics as wide-ranging as fashion, travel, botany, photography, and imperialism, and cover the globe, from the South Pacific to India, and from Singapore to the English countryside. The essays grapple with the complex issues of race, class, gender, work, the environment, colonialism, and politics, demonstrating the importance of the Humanities for not only interpreting the past but also understanding our present and future.
It's all here, and all freely available online for you to read.
VIDES 2023 - Volume 11 (pdf)
Previous volumes
Earlier volumes of VIDES are also available here:
You can find a list of previous VIDESessays with their abstracts on the open.conted site (search VIDES under 'Courses').
