Here’s some treats for this week!
The City Politics Podcast: Biden’s 100 Days
On 20 January 2021, Joseph Robinette Biden placed his hand on his family’s Bible and was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. He assumed office in the immediate aftermath of the January 6th insurrection, in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that has hit America harder than many other nations, facing a polarised senate, and indeed a polarised country. What has he done so far? And what does it mean for America and the world?
Today we will give you the City view on Biden’s first 100 days.
Our guest is Lora Anne Viola, Professor of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin.
(Just a little note: We cover domestic issues up to 42:49. We then move to international affairs.)
Also available on Soundcloud and Apple Podcasts!
The International System of Power Webinar: The Idea of China
And check out the full seminar series in the next item!
The International System of Power Webinar Series:
Term 3 Schedule
How can we open up our minds and learn how to think differently about the world, its different regions and societies? How can we connect with streams of thought, ideas, thinkers, scholars, and experience, from around the world? How might we be better informed by intellectual currents beyond the global North and its circuits of knowledge? How can we have truly global conversations beyond the conventional elite circuits and boundaries of knowledge? What might truly global knowledge look like?
- Friday 7 May – The Idea of China: Kori Cooper (Columbia Law School ); Oliver Turner (Edinburgh); Hilton Root (George Mason U)
- Friday 14 May [NB – start 4.30pm]— Global Power Elite and World Politics: Nana deGraaff/Bastiaan van Apeldoorn (Vrie U, Amsterdam); Matias Lopez Martinez (Geneva ); Peter Phillips (UC, Sonoma, USA)
- Friday 21 May — “Beyond Eurocentrism: Global South ideational and political agency in world affairs”: Milinda Banerjee (St. Andrews); Alanna O’Malley (Leiden); Sanaa Alimia (Aga Khan)
- Friday 28 May – “White Supremacy and Racial Capitalism in World Politics” – Robert Vitalis (UPenn ); Zophia Edwards (Providence U); Srdjan Vucetic (Ottawa); Bobby Banerjee (Business School, CUoL)
- 4 June – “Periphery War, Global Impact – The Iraq Wars and World Order” – Bamo Nouri (U West London); Samuel Helfont (US Naval Academy, CA); Zahra Ali (LSE)
- 11 June – Religion and World Politics – Lee Marsden (UEA ); Sara Silvestri (City UoL); Azza Karam (Religions for Peace); Siddharth Varadarajan (The Wire, New Delhi)
It’s a one-time registration that gives access to all 6 webinars.
City Student Union: Study Well
Every year, the CSU runs a series of events and support sessions to prepare you for assessments and help you relax. This year, they can’t be there for you physically, but Study Well is still here to support you remotely!
Be sure to sign up for a range of really helpful events.
Book your free tickets to the following activities:
| Eat Well – Food for the Mind | 5th May | Book here. |
| Managing Stress | 6th May | Book here. |
| Sleep Well – 8 Steps to Sleep Better | 12th May | Book here. |
| Overcoming Procrastination | 13th May | Book here. |
| Grow Well with Hannah Grows | 19th May | Book here. |
| Self-care | 20th May | Book here. |
| Perfectionism | 25th May | Book here. |
| Mental Health Literacy (Academic focus) | 26th May | Book here. |
| Relax, Restore and Recharge | 27th May | Book here. |
If you’d like to join a study session, see:
| Study Group (ESN City London Society) | Book here. |
| Study Group (BAME Women Society) | Book here. |
Undergraduate Conference: Global Governance During Unprecedented Global Challenges
The Democratic Education Network (DEN), alongside the University of Westminster, are delighted to invite you and your students to our 2021 Conference. The conference will take place on the 11th and 12th of June (online) with the title: ‘Global Governance During Unprecedented Global Challenges’.
The conference brings together students from undergraduate, postgraduate, and college levels to discuss a range of contemporary issues. Students are welcomed to write and submit papers which will be organised into panels for them to present on the day. We hope to have papers ranging from topics like gender and geopolitics, human rights and Hong Kong, and of course, the implications of the pandemic. For more information, please see our website http://blog.westminster.ac.uk/den/our-projects/our-student-conference/.
After the paper has been presented it will be sent to a group of DEN Westminster academics and students who will be tasked with editing it and publishing it in a book to be released in May 2022. If you would like to see a copy of previous books published by DEN, please look at our website: http://blog.westminster.ac.uk/den/our-projects/our-book/.
Alternatively, students are welcome to write a brief abstract (roughly 250 words) outlining the subject of their research and present it at the conference without a paper; the paper can be written in the commencing weeks and emailed to the DEN team after the conference. Please see the Call for Papers and promotional poster attached for more information.
If students wish to submit a paper or abstract, they can send it to denconference2021@gmail.com. The deadline is May 7th, but late submissions may be accepted.
NSS: Thank You!
No more NSS Memes… until next year! A massive thanks to everyone who completed the survey and all the other surveys as well. They are really very important for the Department and University!