Portrait of Morgan Mitchell standing in front of her picture at the Other Than Oxford exhibition
Portrait of Morgan Mitchell standing in front of her picture at the Other Than Oxford exhibition
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Student story: Morgan Mitchell

Morgan Mitchell is a third-year DPhil Clinical Neurosciences student at Reuben College. Morgan has launched Other than Oxford, a photography project designed to celebrate diversity within STEM and unconventional routes into research here. Read on to find out more about the project, Morgan’s journey to studying at Oxford, and her future plans.

When I was at school, I originally wanted to study medicine at university. For various reasons that didn’t happen, but I was open to other options, and my A-levels had made me realise that the brain was really cool. I thought that understanding the brain was the key to understanding everything else – and that was really, really fun. I decided to do a degree in neuroscience, where I spent a lot of time in wet labs learning about molecular biology, cells and animal brains. But it wasn’t until my third year that I realised that I took a course on imaging, and realised we could work with living, human brains. I’ve always been interested in sports, and I went on to do a Master’s degree in Sports Sciences at the University of Birmingham. There, I worked on a project about how people learn new motor skills, which led me to my current research examining the neuroscience behind movement.

Attendees at the Other than Oxford exhibition looking at the portraits.
Attendees at the Other than Oxford exhibition looking at the portraits.
Other than Oxford emerged out of my route into research. Last year, I was stressing about my transfer viva, which felt very insular, and it got me thinking: there’s more to me than just Oxford; this is only one part of my life. I realised that that must be how it feels for lots of other people, and how good it would be to celebrate those ‘other’ parts of their lives, and to see them represented as part of the fabric and culture that makes up Oxford. There are lots of people here who are not from within the traditional Oxford system or haven’t come through the private school pipeline. There are lots of other interesting people, doing really good research, who have come through less conventional, underrepresented routes. And I felt we needed to shed light on those people as well.

The project was funded by Reuben College’s Public Engagement in Research Fund, and we launched an exhibition in December featuring portraits of STEM researchers accompanied by their stories. I was overwhelmed by how many people came to the opening! What began as a small event suddenly felt very far-reaching, and I had lots of encouraging conversations with people who now want to host the exhibition, tour it around schools and showcase it elsewhere. I still can’t quite believe that happened, to be honest!

Morgan Mitchell speaking at Other than Oxford in front of a portrait
Morgan Mitchell speaking at Other than Oxford in front of a portrait.
I strongly believe you can’t become what you can’t see: I definitely didn’t consider research as a career for me until I climbed the rungs and realised ‘oh, there are options.’ I never even considered getting a doctorate. Even now, at times it can feel like you’re the only one who doesn’t fit in. Other than Oxford was all about shedding light on the rich tapestry of people who make up the University, and I’m hoping the exhibition will inspire other young people by showcasing unconventional journeys to Oxford, or into research. Diversity’s a really good thing, and it keeps the University going.

It would be really cool to see Other than Oxford in new spaces and it would be great to increase its reach. At the same time, though it’s flattering for these photos to find new audiences, I don’t want to immortalise the subjects we featured as the underrepresented people at Oxford. I’m sure there are so many others. So who knows – maybe there’ll be a round two?

Other Than Oxford is currently on semi-permanent display at Reuben College. You can follow the project on Instagram via their handle @otherthanoxford. 

This article was adapted with the kind permission from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. The original article is available on the Department’s website.

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