NOZIZWE DUBE

Last year, I had the opportunity to be a visiting doctoral researcher at Oxford University’s Faculty of Law during the 2025 Trinity term. My time at Oxford University provided me with a great opportunity to develop my doctoral research in a different academic environment. In this blogpost, I briefly discuss how Oxford University helped me to develop my doctoral research three years into the project.

First, the libraries scattered across the university were ideal places to engross myself in my doctoral research project. I particularly enjoyed working in the Radcliffe Camera and in the Law Faculty library.

Second, Oxford University’s Law Faculty boasts scholars studying law from various angles. Additionally, there are different discussion groups where critical thinking about the law is encouraged. I enjoyed attending seminars and a workshops organised by the Feminist Jurisprudence Discussion Group and a conference on decolonising EU law organised by Prof. dr. Iyiola Solanke. As my doctoral research centres Critical Race Feminism as the theoretical framework to study EU law, these workshops, seminars, and conferences were insightful and helpful for my doctoral research. These were also great moments to meet other academics.

Lastly, Oxford itself is a beautiful city with stunning architecture and nature. My writing breaks were therefore spent in nature enjoying the spring weather.

You can read a Dutch blogpost – written in my capacity as a Face of Science from the KNAW – about my time at Oxford University on NEMO Kennislink: https://www.nemokennislink.nl/publicaties/wat-een-verblijf-op-oxford-university-je-echt-leert/