From a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa to anticipating the future of warfare, remembering 9/11 and looking at Life After kent for our alumni, we celebrate our work and ‘wins’ of 2021 in our annual RoundUp.
Our Focus was Global
- Fourth-year undergraduate student Freddie Mallinson’s year abroad led him directly to the heart of the US government. Find out more about his experience.
- The spotlight was on Sub Saharan Africa for this year’s prestigious John Burton Lecture and Sandpit workshop. Professor Neophytos Loizides summarises the event for us here.
- Tamika Adamson, Student Success Diversity Mark Officer told us about The Diversity Mark project which is primarily centred around decolonising the curriculum through contextualising western views of the world, and to allow more marginalised perspectives to come towards the forefront. Read about the project.
We Anticipated the Future
- Student Ben Treacy took part in the UK Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge giving him a glimpse into the complexity of cybersecurity, ‘but these issues are becoming more salient as time goes on.’ Read his blog here.
- Is Remote Warfare just a buzz word? Read Dr Rubrick Bigeon’s piece here.
- Battlefields of the Future was a hybrid student-led conference reflecting on current debates around international security, conflicts of the future, and possible conflict solving mechanisms. More here.
We remembered
- Condolences for Professor Clive Church Emeritus Professor of European Studies. Dr Paolo Dardanelli remembers his colleague fondly here.
-
‘War on terror was not the only possible response.’ On the 20-year anniversary of 9/11, Dr Harmonie Toros, a New York resident at the time, reflected on the terror attack’s impact on international relations in this piece.
Our Students Succeeded
- What do you do with a degree in POLIR anyway? We talk to our alumni to see what Life After Kent has led onto…Find out more.
- Liberal Arts student Glory Oluwaseun was awarded the Medway African Caribbean Association Young Black Achievers Award. Read more about her project.
- Hollie Mackenzie won the Sir Ernest Barker Prize for best doctoral thesis in political theory from the Political Studies Association. Find out more about the prize.
- Student Alistair Brady stood as the Labour Candidate for Canterbury City North in this year’s Kent County Council elections, and won!
We welcomed
- The Politics Society welcomed Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, Jess Phillips MP for an open Q&A session about everything from the future of the Labour party, to the handling of the COVID-19 crisis and ending male violence against women. Watch here.
- “Little Amal demonstrates the power of performance in politics.’ Dr Harmonie Toros said of the ambitious project to highlight the journey of displaced people crossing the coast. Find out more about Amal’s visit.
- Gavin Esler joined us to reflect on the results of the Scottish Parliament election results and the implications for Britain. See more.
- Reg Race was one of the original 500 Kent students, so it’s fitting that he came back to launch his new book here in the Grimond Lecture Theatre with the Kent Labour Students society. Read about the event.
We published
- Morvan Lallouet’s book Navalny makes the prestigious Financial Times best book of the year list!
- Albena Azmanova discussed her award-winning book ‘Capitalism on Edge, How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change Without Crisis or Utopia’ where she posits that precarity, not inequality is the real malaise of our time. Listen here.
- Is post-liberalism the alternative to failed ideologies? Professor Adrian Pabst argues such in Post-liberal Politics, his latest book.
- Taking a particular feminist view on the male-dominated realm of foreign policy and diplomacy, Dr Nadine Ansorg collaborated on a chapter in the prestigious Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research. More information.
The Human and Social Science division launched ‘Summer Bites’!
- A month of bitesize talks from the Schools of Anthropology and Conservation, Economics, Politics and International Relations, and Psychology about the study of humans and the systems we use to live on the planet we inhabit. Watch the series on YouTube.
Keep up to date with the latest news from the School of Politics and International Relations