#DMUPolitics October/November 2016 Edition 22
Welcome to POPP Culture by the Department of Politics and Public Policy
POPP Culture Welcome readers to the re-energised POPP Culture eMagazine. We’re the much anticipated resource of events and updates taking place in the Department of Politics and Public Policy. We will be posting regular editions of all things POPP (Politics and Public Policy) Culture throughout the 2016-17 academic year. Editions will be written by the DMU Frontrunners, Kayleigh Beere and Quinn Franklin, but will be featuring the Department’s trailblazing students, staff and their highlights. This will primarily range from staff research and publications, student awards and Departmental events. If YOU have a topic that you think should be covered in POPP Culture, email the Frontrunner team at kayleigh.beere@dmu.ac.uk and quinn.franklin@dmu.ac.uk.
Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoy our feature pieces throughout the year. POPP Culture Edition 22, October/November 2016
POPP Frontrunners Hi, my name’s Kayleigh and I am one of this year’s
Kayleigh Beere Frontrunners. I’m a second-year International Relations and Politics student from Birmingham. I am also on the Politics Society committee. Together, Quinn and I have created this e-zine to promote the events going on in the POPP Department. My name is Quinn and I am a second year studying
Quinn Franklin International Relations and Politics. I am a part of the DMU Frontrunner Team for this year, but in the past I have been a Course Representative and Faculty Brand Ambassador. I have a passion for current affairs, but I also love travelling, photography and learning French.
Connect with the Department of Politics and Public Policy online Facebook: DMU Politics and Public Policy
Social Media www.facebook.com/politicsandpublicpolicydmu Twitter: @DMUPolitics www.twitter.com/dmupolitics Instagram: @DMUPolitics www.instagram.com/dmupolitics LinkedIn: DMU Department of Politics and Public Policy www.linkedin.com/company/dmu-department-of-politicsandpublic-policy
Keep in touch on all social media sites by using the hashtag #DMUPolitics
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ADVICE FOR FIRST YEARS from the Winner of the 2015-16 best first year student in the #DMUPolitics and Public Policy Department Connor Loftus
I come from a town called Mexborough, which is just outside of Sheffield. I’m currently a second-year student studying International Relations and Politics. I chose this course because Politics is a subject that I think is important and is also a subject that I thought I was good at. However, it can be a little dull from time to time, so that’s why I decided to pick International Relations and Politics. I thought a combination of the two would lead to an interesting degree which could potentially have plenty of job prospects. For any prospective students who are thinking of doing this course at De Montfort University, then pay attention. This course is very eye opening, especially the Globalisation module. This was my favourite module in first year and it was down to the teaching of the module and the extremely interesting content.
“If you are looking to have your moral compass turned upside down and your thoughts challenged on a regular basis, then this course is for you” For those of you who are first year students, then make sure you get into second year so you can continue enjoying a great degree. At the end of your first year you get to choose some of your modules for second year. All the options available are interesting and you will certainly have an option that appeals to you. I picked the Contemporary America module, and I certainly do not regret it. Due to my first-year success, I was awarded the Baylis and Smith award for Best First Year Student in the Politics and Public Policy Department. I think the reason why I achieved a 1st is because of the research I did for my assessments. I also worked hard for my first-year results and hopefully this will be something I can achieve again in second year. My advice to first year students and even prospective students would be to make sure that you put in the hard work in the first year. Even though first year does not necessarily count towards your overall degree, it does count in terms of employability. This will be extremely important if you are thinking of doing a placement year, as many employers are looking for students who are on course for a 2:1 or above. My final piece of advice would be to make sure that you surround yourself with a good group of friends who will help you, and who you can help when times get stressful.
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POPP School Representative Coordinator My name is Louisa Nicholson and I’m your School Representative Coordinator for the Department of Politics and Public Policy. This is actually my fifth year at De Montfort, I started at DMU in 2012 on an Art and Design Foundation course before switching to International Relations and Politics in 2013. Last year I spent the year in industry working for Pfizer in Marketing in one of the European Brand Teams and now I’m back for my
Louisa Nicolson
final year! What I love about our department is the teaching staff. The modules are challenging and engaging and the support we can get from our tutors is amazing. It’s never a problem to meet tutors to discuss an upcoming essay/assignment or to review feedback on a previous one. This year I will co-ordinate and support DMU's course-level representatives, by holding team meetings and managing communication online to ensure there is effective interaction between reps and students to represent our views across the University. As a member of the Universities 'Reviews and Validations' process I will help ensure the content of courses and how they are taught and assessed is engaging, relevant and worthwhile for our students. I heard about the opportunity to be a SRC when I was away on placement in an email from Alasdair Blair. There was an application form and assessment centre day. This year I hope that we can engage more students to express their opinions’ and ensure that we maximize our student experience. I want to guarantee every student voice is heard, so that this year our school is absolutely the best it can be! By mid-November 2016 our course level representatives should be in place, so look out for them in lectures, get to know them, and start feeding back all the good stuff about your course, and highlight any areas for improvement as early as possible so we have the chance to make a difference! If you’re interested in getting involved in the type of work I do next year, keep an eye out for when applications open by the De Montfort Students’ Union. If you want to get in touch with me directly, please contact me on my student email P1221064X@my365.dmu.ac.uk.
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What your personal tutor can do for YOU Settling into university can be an unnerving task in your first year of university. However, we’re lucky at DMU that the personal tutoring system established by schools and departments such as Politics and Public Policy is designed to combat fresher’s nerves. This is done through the special training that POPP staff receive to ensure their mentoring and academic development skills are suitable to cater to the many new faces in the department. What first year students, and even many second year students don’t know is how vital of a service that their personal tutor can be to them. With personal tutors being a member of staff, the services they can provide range from both personal to academic. In addition, with placement opportunities opening early in the second year of university, your personal tutor will be more than happy to provide an academic reference. With the upcoming enhancement week starting on 7th November 2016, personal tutoring tutorials is a great way to get to know your tutor on a personal level.
Rachel Jeffries Student
Prof Alasdair Blair Personal Tutor
Dr Clodagh Harrington Personal Tutor
POPP Culture spoke to second year International Relations and Politics student, Rachel Jeffries, on her experience with her personal tutor, Chris Goldsmith. Rachel stated that having Chris has been an “absolutely great experience, personally”. It was due to the willingness of Chris to be involved in her academic life which has made personal issues a lot easier. A little goes a long way, whether it’s through the prompt responses to emails, or dealing with other tutors on her behalf. Speaking to some of the Department’s personal tutors themselves, POPP Culture enquired into the crucial advice that they would give to first year students. Professor Alasdair Blair, Head of Department, emphasised on the importance of first year students to reflect on the online self-assessment test that they undertook prior to starting at DMU. This can be used as something to reflect upon throughout the year, but also form the basis of their discussions with their personal tutor. Alasdair also mentioned that selfreflection is something that returning students should also undertake, by focusing on the feedback they received last year to identify common patterns. A rule of thumb from Dr Clodagh Harrington, Senior Lecturer in Politics, for all students is “if in doubt, ask”. This can be through your personal tutor and through interacting with fellow students, finding out what they are doing and experiencing. Clodagh stresses that personal tutors are there to help, and that it is important to make use of their mentorship. All personal tutors, which students can find out through myDMU, have their weekly office hours, phone numbers and email addresses on the signs outside of their doors. A good relationship with your personal tutor is strongly advised, and would greatly enhance your student experience.
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European Parliament to Campus
European Question Time
On 26th October 2016, the Department of Politics and Public Policy had the honour of hosting a Q&A-panel with three former Members of European Parliament. The event, chaired by Professor Alasdair Blair, Head of Department and Centre of European Governance in the Department of Politics and Public Policy, gave DMU and the wider community an opportunity to gain insights on a wide variety of UK-EU issues. Our distinguished guests for the evening included Jose Maria Gil-Robles GilDelgado, Barbara Weiler and Gay Mitchel.
Jose Maria Gil-Robles GilDelgado Jose was an MEP from 1989 to 2004 and President of the European Parliament from 1997 to 1999. During this time, he was a member of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats. He has been President of the European Parliament Former Member Association from 2006-2009 and from 2009-2015 was President of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe. He has received numerous awards, including the Robert Schuman Medal, the Gold Medal of Athens, and the Order of European Merit (Spain). Barbara Weiler Barbara was an MEP from 1994 to 2014. During this time, she was a member of the Group of the Party of European Socialists and the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. She served on a variety of committees, including employment and social affairs and internal market and consumer protection. She was a member of the delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and was part of the Special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering (CRIM) and Rapporteur of the ‘Thematic Paper on Corruption - European funds and their use by organised crime’. Gay Mitchel Gay was elected an MEP from 2004 to 2014. During this time, he was a member of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats). He was previously a member of the Irish Parliament (Dali) for 26 years. In the European Parliament he served on the Development Committee where he was Coordinator for the EPP, was a full and then alternate member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, a member of Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering, and leader of the Fine Gael Delegation in the European Parliament. In his previous role in the Dali, 6
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as Fine Gael director of elections he had responsibility for the following national referendums: Single European Act (1987); Maastricht Treaty (1992), Amsterdam Treaty (1998); Nice Treaty (2001); Lisbon Treaty (2008). Gay Mitchell is author of the standard work on the role of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee: ‘By Dail Account Auditing of Government Past Present and Future’, published by the institute of Public Administration, 2004.
The former MEPs spoke on the issues of the future direction for the EU without the inclusion of the UK, unity and diversity in the EU and the implications of Brexit and Europe’s security challenges. The event was fortunate to have an incredibly eager audience, who brought some valued questions forward to the MEPs. Audience questions kicked off with “Following the result of recent referendums, is it inevitable that the EU will breakup in the nearby future?” This was followed with a unanimous answer from the MEPs, “No”. Follow-up questions came from a wide spectrum regarding the UK’s access to the EU internal market, environmentalism, Scottish independence and investment into a post-Brexited Wales. Closing remarks from the even were for the MEPs to describe the EU in one word/phrase. In all cases, this was “unity and diversity”, which very much fits the motto of the European Union. The presence of the MEPs accumulated an impressive attendee number of 200. There is no doubt that recent events in relation to the British exit of the European Union caused much excitement. To gain first hand insight from MEPs on campus was a really great student enhancing opportunity. Chris Segal and Robert Sutton, who are in their second year studying Politics stated that “it gave a new understanding about the EU” and that “it led to some great debate”. First year Business and Globalisation student, Tom Chapman felt he “really enjoyed the MEP talk, and found it really fascinating to hear the different opinions expressed by those who spoke. It was a refreshing break from the doom and gloom of Brexit to finally hear some positives about the EU and how it's helped benefit us here in the UK.”
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Policy Exchanges #DMUPolitics Blog
There are some new posts on the Department’s Policy Exchanges blog. Articles on this site are written by members of the Department on issues relating to current affairs and work in progress. Recent posts from @Alasdair_Blair are available from http://policyex.our.dmu.ac.uk:
The Muscles from Brussels Where are Europe’s leaders? Jean Monnet’s contribution to the development of European integration
In the media US Election 2016 Events and Venues
Some updates from Dr Clodagh Harrington’s recent media coverage. Clodagh is a Senior Lecturer in Politics teaching American Presidency, American Government and Politics and American Foreign Policy. Eccles Centre, British Library - roundtable with Film director Michael Kirk and Washington Post journalist Griff Witte The Battle of Ideas (Barbican) - panel discussion with journalists from Newsweek, the Daily Beast, the Spectator. Clodagh spoke in the media on BBC World News (17.10.16), BBC Radio Leicester (17.10.16) and BBC Radio Cumbria (17.10.16) on the US Election. Find her BBC World News segment on our Twitter page @DMUPolitics Part one: https://twitter.com/DMUpolitics/status/785833049330180096 Part two: https://twitter.com/DMUpolitics/status/785834420775297024 She hosted ‘2016 Election Lowdown’ on 26th October 2016, with discussion, Q&A and clips from Frontline’s Trump Vs Clinton: The Choice 2016: The Duelling Stories of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as They Compete for the Presidency.
Future Events
Oxford University (Rothermere American Institute) - roundtable on Race and Resistance: Reflections on the Obama years with academics from Oxford University and University College London in November 2016. University College London - roundtable on the US Election 2016 outcome (November 2016). American Politics Group annual colloquium at the British Library, 2 December 2016. The day's theme will be the US Election outcome and speakers will include former Member of US Congress, former UK ambassadors to the US, along with British and American academics.
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Welcome to POPP Staff Newcomers
Ben Whitham @DrBenWhitham
Arianna Giovannini @AriannaGi
Davide Vampa @DavideVampa
“I was awarded my PhD by the University of Reading in 2015, for a thesis investigating 'the neoliberal way of war'. My research explores how market-led ways of understanding the world shape a range of political spaces and debates, especially in international relations, conflict and security, but also in domestic policy fields including health and social care. I am interested in, and have researched and written about, political theory - particularly liberalism, neoliberalism, Marxism, critical theories and Foucauldian poststructuralism - and the philosophy of social science. Before coming to DMU I taught international relations part-time at three universities during and after my PhD. I then worked for 18 months as a policy researcher at a large national third sector organisation, where my research focused on public service reforms. At DMU I will be contributing to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in international relations and diplomacy, while continuing to develop my own research. Outside of academia, I sit on the Board of Directors of a small NGO working on the safety and future of the UK's nuclear deterrent. When I'm not working I like to cook, and I practise a traditional Chinese martial art! I live in east London, but am looking forward to getting to know Leicester.”
Dr Arianna Giovannini teaches Local Government. Before joining DMU she was a researcher for Sheffield University in the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute. She has also worked at Huddersfield University and Leeds Metropolitan and was awarded a PhD in Political Sociology in 2014. Arianna is an active member of the Political Studies Association, and the coconvener of its Italian Politics Specialist Group.
Dr Davide Vampe is also new to the Department this academic year. He holds a BA in History from the University of Milan, an MA in European Studies from King's College London and an MPhil in European Politics and Society from the University of Oxford. He has recently released a new book called ‘The Regional Politics of Welfare in Italy, Spain and Great Britain’.
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Research Seminar Series Dr Liam Stanley
The Department’s Research Seminar Series was launched this year on 19th October by a guest lecture from Dr Liam Stanley from the University of Sheffield. He presented a seminar on ‘An Underserving Rich? Inequality, redistribution and class in an age of austerity’.
Dr Andrea Lagna
Then on 26th October 2016 we welcomed Dr Andrea Lagna from Loughborough University. The topic for the seminar was 'Financialization of the state: exploring the relationship between statecraft and financial innovation'.
Dr Pamela Carter & Prof Graham Martin
Our next seminar will take place on 16th November 2016 on the topic of ‘PreConsultation: Engagement of patients and the public in NHS sustainability and the public in NHS sustainability and transformation’. This seminar will be delivered by Dr Pamela Carter and Professor Graham Martin from Leicester University. Anyone is welcome to attend. To reserve a place or to find out more information about our seminar series please contact adam.fishwick@dmu.ac.uk or jonathan.rose@dmu.ac.uk.
Labour, Work and Development New network
Following a successful workshop at DMU in June this year, the Labour, Work, and Development Network site has been launched, which can be found online at https://labouranddevelopment.wordpress.com. This is aimed at bringing together scholars across anthropology, international political economy, sociology, and work and employment focusing on labour, work, and development in the Global South. The site will host details of upcoming events (such as the forthcoming workshop at the University of Sussex) and short blog contributions detailing aspects of research and collaborations. If you would like to get involved, please email adam.fishwick@dmu.ac.uk.
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Upcoming in the Next Edition of POPP Culture Welsh Assembly Trip
Enhancement Week Events
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Returning 3 Year Students from Placement
Politics in Action Student Experiences
Councillor Commission
On the 7th November 2016, Alistair Jones will be taking all first year #DMUPolitics students to the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff. This is to give students the opportunity to experience the legislative processes in the UK.
DMU’s enhancement week will be taking place during Week 6 (7th to 12th November 2016). The next edition of POPP Culture will be covering enhancement activities which took place in the Department and what #DMUPolitics students got up to.
The beginning of the academic year is an incredibly busy period for the Business and Law Placement Team, as students begin applications for industrial placements. POPP Culture will be talking to #DMUPolitics third year students, who have just returned from placement. We will be seeking their tips for current second years, in addition to how they felt in their placement.
A contribution to what makes DMU great, specifically the Department of Politics and Public Policy, is the mentorship it provides students to gain the confidence and skills to seek employability. As the 2016-17 academic year has commenced, we will be talking to Dr Alison Statham who leads Politics in Action – a module with the objective of applying theory to reality. We will also be speaking to some of the participating students, to see the great work that they are doing in addition to how their experience has prepared them for life post-university.
October 2016 saw the release of the Interim Report of the Councillor Commission, by the DMU Local Government Research Unit and the Municipal Journal. This has aims to provide policy-makers information on the responsibilities of local government. Since January, the Commission has been collecting evidence from various parts of England. A final report is due to be released at the end of January 2017 to be forwarded onto the Parliamentary Communities and Local Government Committee. Email ccopus@dmu.ac.uk for more details.
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Congress to Campus On 29th to 30th November 2016 #DMUPolitics welcomes this year’s Congress to Campus with our special guest the Honourable Martin Frost (D-TX) and the Honourable Phil Gingrey (R-GA). For further information please contact Dr Clodagh Harrington cmharrington@dmu.ac.uk.
US Politics Today and Tomorrow: The 2016 Election and Beyond
On Tuesday 29th November from 6.30pm to 8.00pm Professor Philip Davies will chair an event with our special guests who will be invited to start the session with their own reflections and assessments and then the discussion will be open to Q&A. Tea and coffee will be served in the atrium from 6.30pm and refreshments will be available after the event. To reserve your place, please book online or email eventsoffice@dmu.ac.uk or call 0116 257 7452.
We are also hosting a one-day conference for undergraduates and invited high school juniors/seniors and their teachers on Wednesday 30th November. The timetable for the day is as follows: 09.45am 10.00am 10.15am
11.15am 12.15pm 1.00pm 2.00pm 3.00pm
Registration (Hugh Aston Building Atrium) Welcome & Introductions The Party Political Balance in Washington after the 2016 Election, Professor Philip Davies & the former Members of Congress The 21st Century Presidency, Dr Clodagh Harrington (De Montfort University) and FMCs Lunch The Roberts Court and Contemporary Politics, Dr Alex Waddan (Leicester University) and FMCs The US Congress: How It Really Works, FMCs, chaired by Chris Goldsmith (De Montfort University) Close
For queries about POPP Culture contact the Editor, Ros Lishman, Department of Politics and Public Policy, De Montfort University, Leicester, rlishman@dmu.ac.uk
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