Epigram Issue 385

Pages for readers, Opportunities for writers

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01.06.25

Bristol university’s independent newspaper & the UK’s best student publication 2025

Yearbook special issue

From left to right: photos courtesy of Isaac Howie, University of Bristol & PETA Fr

METAL WORKS OPENING - 12TH MOST SUSTAINABLE UNI - FORCED SWIM TEST BAN - DERBY DAY - UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE SUCCESS

Editorial The defining moments of this year at Bristol

Turn over to hear from Epigram’s first South Asian Muslim Co Editor-in-Chief

Bethany Banks Second Year English

September 2024 - The opening of Metal Works

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his year, for many first-year students, began with a move to Metal Works, a brand new student accommodation which opened at the beginning of this academic year.

Features Me, my mum, and mental illness

Located in Bedminster, the accommodation is a towering, modern block, conveniently located next to the high streets of Bedminster, the bustling harbourside and city centre. However, students were left waiting for their move-in day to actually come, as the opening was delayed. This left freshers in the lurch

with a late start to the university experience, and seemingly nowhere to live until after Welcome Week.

This led to an uproar from students and parents alike, causing concerns about students and the experience of isolation, having no initial place to live or meet each other. At an

already stressful time, this was sure to make the transition into university life that much harder.

First year Zoology student, Thomas Hardyman, lived in Metal Works this year, and, when speaking to Epigram, said ‘Although luck> Continue reading on Page 5

Beyond Campus

YEARBOOK

Arts

Susanna Reid returns to Epigram

8 page pull-out celebrating our team!

Noreen Masud’s memoir

Film & T V Meet the new Doctor Who companion

Turn to page 8 to read:

Greener mould for sustainability?

&What’s next for mould?

Between the Sheets 2 Editorials 4 Features 8 BtMould 10 Opinion 12 News 13 Yearbook pull-out!

Website - https://epigram.org.uk

Instagram - @epigrampaper_

LinkedIn - @epigram-paper

21 BCampus 22 Arts 24 Film & TV 26 Music 28 Sci-Tech 30 Sport 32 Epi-games

TikTok - @EpigramPaper

02 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Editorial Amaan Ali Co-Editor-in Chief

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hen I stepped into the role of Co-Editor-in-Chief of Epigram, I was making history, though I didn’t quite realise it then. After 35 years of this paper’s existence, I became the first South Asian Muslim to lead it. It’s a milestone I carry with pride, but also with the weight of what it reflects about the slow pace of change in student media and lead-

ership across the country. at the University of Bristol, both of whom will step up as Deputy EdiTruthfully, this year tors-in-Chief next year. Their passion hasn’t been easy. Lead- and integrity will shape Epigram’s ership is often roman- future for the better. I also want to ticised and seen as a recognise Rhiannon Jenkins, our badge of honour rather brilliant Deputy News Editor, Karen than the daily grind it is. Mends, Opinion Editor, and Aditi Navigating the demands of running Hrisheekesh, Deputy Music Editor, a publication, maintaining editorial whose work helped push our coverstandards, supporting writers, and age forward and made real strides in protecting our independence, all improving representation and diverwhile being visible in a space that sity in our pages. And of course, winwasn’t always built for someone like ning Best Publication was the icing me, has been a challenge. And yet, it’s on the cake, a moment I hope the also been one of the most formative team will treasure as much as I do. and affirming experiences of my life.

This was also the most diverse team That growth wouldn’t have been in Epigram’s history, which was a possible without the brilliant team fact reflected in the range and depth I had the privilege of working with. of the stories we told. From features Our Student Publication Award like ‘Doctors aren’t listening to us’: wins were a collective achievement, Decolonising medicine at Bristol proof that hard work, creativity, and and confronting medical racism, to tenacity can thrive even in difficult opinion pieces like ‘Colston’s in the times. Whether it was breaking harbour, so why is he still in our stories, crafting clever headlines, university?’, we pushed boundaries or pulling together last-minute and platformed voices too often layouts, this team showed up, and overlooked. Lighter pieces, like ‘Was kept showing up, for each oth- my Mickey Mouse degree worth it?’ er and for the students we serve. brought balance through humour and critique. Our Film&TV section I’m especially proud of Sofia Lamb- equally filled me with a sense of imis, who was highly commended as a mense pride, as a long-time fan of Rising Star (Best Newcomer), and Doctor Who, the interview featurFaniki Deche, recently named one of ing Varada Sethu ahead of her role the Top 50 Most Influential Students in the show was particularly special.

Want to write for us? epigram.org.uk/get-involved/

Another key moment came during my interviews with Carla Denyer and Thangam Debbonaire, where I was able to challenge them on diversity, which served as a reminder of how important it is to ask difficult questions, especially to people in spaces of power.

But what I’ve learned this year extends far beyond the newsroom. I’ve seen firsthand how exhausting it is to constantly advocate for inclusion while being part of a system that too often resists it. With attacks on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion programmes across the UK, rising Islamophobia, and past events like the Southport riots, we are reminded again and again that representation is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. My year at Epigram has only strengthened my belief that storytelling is a powerful tool in challenging dominant narratives and reimagining our collective future.

This is also why the work doesn’t stop here. While I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, there is still so much to be done. It cannot take another 35 years for an award-winning student paper like Epigram to choose another editor from a minoritised background. Diversity in leadership must not be treated as a one-off or a check-box exercise; it must become

Coach's Diaries: My experience coahing university Men and Women's Football

To the next editorial team, I say this: Be bold. Not just in your headlines, but in your hiring, in your politics, and in your values. Take risks, but also build safety nets for your writers, for your readers, and yourselves. Recognise that neutrality is not always the correct approach and that choosing whose voices to amplify is a political act.

As I look ahead to a future in writing, journalism, and public service, I take with me the lessons this role has taught me: resilience, critical thinking, and the importance of holding space for others. I hope that Epigram continues to evolve not just as a newspaper, but as a platform where the next generation of students can find their voice and be heard.

Thank you to those who believed in me, supported me, and challenged me to grow. I leave this role not with disillusionment, but with conviction. We don’t need perfect institutions; we need institutions that are willing to be transformed.

And we’ve only just begun.

Our Team

Amaan's favourite articles this year Kebabs, Kwik-Emart and culture: interactions between students and South Asian business owners

the standard. That means actively mentoring new voices, ensuring editorial coverage reflects the full spectrum of our student body, and never settling for surface-level progress.

Editorial

In Conversation with Varada Sethu - Playing the new Doctor Who companion

Co-Editors-in-Chief: Annie McNamee & Amaan Ali Deputy Editors: Sofia Webster & Will Standring

News

Co-Editors: Josie Hodgson & Maud Humphries & Will White Deputy Editors: Rhiannon Jenkins & Beatrice Learmouth Investigations Editor: Will White & Sofia Lambis Subeditors: Otto Proctor & Cerys Larsen

Opinion

Editor: Karen Mends Deputy Editors: Alex Creighton & Hannah Moser Subeditors: Ellen Jones & Riana McConochie

Aditi Hrisheekesh

Second Year, English and Classical

Faniki Deche

This piece has stayed with me.

It’s sharp, personal, and unafraid to sit with discomfort. The writer brilliantly connects everyday student moments with broader questions about racial stereotyping and how ‘bossman’ culture subtly reflects deeper dynamics of class, identity, and power. It’s the kind of article that challenges you, but gently, through storytelling rather than lecturing.

This piece speaks to the kind of honesty and reflection I wanted Epigram to make space for during my time as Co-Editor-in-Chief.

Sports Editor

Co-deputy Music Editor

This piece is honest, reflective, and pushes past the usual “man coaches women” narrative to ask deeper questions about whether football is still too stuck in its masculinity. The metaphors (chickens vs sheep!) are brilliant, and there’s real warmth in how Faniki navigates the learning curve of coaching women’s football. He did an amazing job challenging assumptions and making space for vulnerability in sport. It’s a piece that really epitomises what Epigram is all about.

I loved this article because it beautifully captured Varada Sethu’s creative journey and the cultural influences that shaped her as an actor. Her reflections on growing up around Indian classical dance and how it informed her performance style were especially powerful. Her honesty about the challenges of pursuing a creative career as a South Asian woman really resonated with me. The piece was uplifting, thoughtful, and left me feeling genuinely inspired.

To read the full articles go to epigram.org.uk

Amaya Lewis Patel

Features

Editor: Nel Roden Deputy Editors: Jessica Cohen & Daisy Yates Investigative Correspondent: Benedict Chester Subeditors: Reuben Kerbes & Ilona Hoffman

Arts

Editor: Bruno Bridger Deputy Editors: Elizabeth Abbott & Ella Heathcote Culture Editors: Anushka Dongare & Natalia Dewhurst Correspondent: Julia Anna Masluszczak Subeditors: Eve Davies & Bobbi Carsley

Film & TV

Editor: Max Bradley-Cole Deputy Editors: Meadow Wattret & Chien Wen Sow Subeditors: Nadiya Jackson & Marianne Chatburn

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

Editorial

Annie McNamee Co-Editor-in-Chief

locked-in at the ASS. I got addicted to booking the single-person study pods on the ground floor – if I can give you one piece of advice it’s to try writing your essays in them. As soon as you shut the door you’re in a world of silence and warmth.

Like a library womb. But I digress.

Despite editing this paper for the past year, I’ve never formally introduced myself. I’m Annie, I’m Glaswegian (and Irish. Irish first if you ask my dad), and yes, uni would have been free if I’d stayed at home. In fact, I got offers from Edinburgh and St Andrews, and applied to Bristol as a joke. Somehow, I still ended up down south.

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nd so, it’s over.

03

After a ‘hedonistic’ (as my ex-boss put it) nine months in Hiatt Baker, I had a bit of a tough second-first year.

Having realised I hated the French half of my Film and French degree vraiment, and so redid my first year, switching to Film and English. All my course friends ended up in the year above me, and I felt pretty isolated at the time. Then, something magical happened: I found Epigram.

Four years of late nights writing essays, Thekla Thursdays, skipping lectures and catching up on seminars, flying back and forth from Bristol to Glasgow and back again, writing for Epigram, sending emails about Epigram, editing articles for Epigram, organising It’s no coincidence that my two fathe Epigram team; you get the gist. vourite years at university have been the ones I’ve spent involved with My time at university has looked this newspaper. My first ever article pretty similar to the average expe- was called ‘The Ultimate Christmas rience, albeit with an extra year. I Movie Guide’ and it’s fine, but it was spent first year drunk, second year a start. Then I wrote an article for anxious, and third and fourth year arts, which an editor absolutely gut-

ted of all humour or levity. I’ve still never forgiven her. It was then that I decided to keep inserting myself at every opportunity until someone put me in charge so I could Make Epigram Fun Again (MEFA). Clearly, spite is a powerful motivator for me.

To be clear, revenge was only a small part of my determination to become Epigram’s editor. The paper I inherited from last year’s team – shoutout Amelia Jacobs and Roya Shahidi – was great, but I knew there were places we could be better. We weren’t a cohesive community, and we didn’t provide adequate training to our writers. So, we organised writing workshops and more socials. We didn’t have as much of an impact on campus as we could have, so we launched Break the Mould. I won’t go on too much about our achievements – you can have a proper read through our highlights on page 14.

Then, the awards came. That’s right, you’re currently holding the ‘Best [student] Publication’ in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Inside you’ll find the nation’s best sci-tech section, words from Sofia Lambis, one of journalism’s best ‘Rising Stars’, and information on an award-winning campaign. I also won the ‘Outstanding Commitment’ award. I know you’re supposed to be modest about these things, but I’m very proud of all that our wee paper has managed to do this year, and I probably won’t stop talking

about it until I win a BAFTA. You’ve got to manifest these things, right?

During a social, Corin, our SciTech editor, pointed out that if you aren’t into sports or going out all the time, And so we come to now. University or tabletop gaming, it can be hard to is over, and so is my tenure as editor find your people. Epigram has, for so of Epigram. This is an emotional jab- many of us, filled in that gap. Prohook right to the stomach for me. ducing a paper is cool, but getting to Some people have actual children, hang out with such interesting, intersome have pets, but for the past year ested people? You quite simply can’t I’ve had Epigram. It fulfilled many beat it. They’re all on page 18, and of the same roles a child would: they’re now some of my best friends. keeping me up at night, requiring my undivided attention even when The most rewarding part about I was exhausted/hungover/work- leading Epigram is watching your ing, and taking a village to look af- team, who will become your friends, ter. There has definitely been less flourish. I’ve been so touched by the puke and dirty nappies though. number of people who’ve told me that I gave them the confidence to I will miss this silly little newspaper write more, or to get involved for more than my degree, but I know the first time. I am but a lowly stuthat it’s going into safe hands. Our dent, but somehow I’ve had an imincoming Editors-in-Chief, Julia pact on people’s lives. I write for a Mullins and James Lewis, are bril- living, and yet I have no way to exliant, kind, capable journalists, and press how much that means to me.

I cannot wait to see what magic My passion for the paper, and for they work on Epigram for 2025/26. the people in it, is something I know will long outlive my tenure as editor.

We’ve also got Sofia Lambis and Faniki Deche lined up to be deputies. This year’s team has been great, Faniki was named as one of the SU’s and I hope next year’s is even bettop 50 most influential students this ter. If you’ve ever attended an Epiyear, and we’ve already gone over gram event, picked up a paper, or Sofia’s achievements. Daisy Yates, so- liked an Instagram post, thank you. cial-media extraordinaire, will be our At the end of the day, we would Digital Editor, and Sci-tech alumni be nothing without our readers.

Miles Gilroy is going to be in charge of print. Memorise those names, Thank you for an excellent cause one day you’ll see them on year. And from me it’s a masGood Morning Britain or interview- sive, heartfelt, goodbye Epigram! ing Jude Bellingham on a red carpet.

Annie's favourite articles this year

Music

Editor: Benji Chapman Deputy Editors: Aditi Hrisheekesh & Megan Foulk Subeditors: Amelie Peters & Sophie Scannell

Sci-Tech

Editor: Corin Hadley Deputy Editors: Miles Gilroy & James Lewis Subeditor: Ellie Barnes Head Researcher: Harrison Phillips

‘Defeated... very defeated’: One student’s mould nightmare

AND IF YOU DON’T KNOW, GET TO KNOW: The Bristol Ballroom Community

Walls within university: an international student POV

James Lewis

Ziggy Himsworth

Sci-Tech Co-Deputy Editor

Satoko Arai

Second Year, English

Third Year, Sociology

Break the Mould was one of my favourite things Epigram did this year. It was so rewarding to get people chatting about their shitty landlords and even shittier housing situations, especially when we got to write about them. I spent months listening to students’ housing horror stories, and my jaw was still on the floor reading Bibi’s. Timely, well assembled, and a perfect example of why we needed Break the Mould, James’ article is the epitome of proper student journalism.

The UK is currently a scary place for trans people, but in the Ballroom ‘shame can’t get in the door’.

Ziggy’s article is a potent blend of personal experience, in depth research, and colourful storytelling, with a healthy dose of queer joy sprinkled on top. This article takes the reader on a journey into a pocket of safety from a nation which is increasingly hostile to the LGBT community, and it’s a surprisingly touching read. As if that wasn’t enough, this was Ziggy’s first ever time writing for us. What a debut!

A great opinion article could only have been written by its author.

It should have a unique perspective which will be new to most of us: that’s exactly what Satako’s recount of her experience as an international student from Japan provides. Not only does she explain why, at times, she’s been made to feel like an outsider, she connects her stories to broader sociological issues in the UK as a whole. That’s not easy to do, and for that reason this article has stuck with me throughout the year.

Sport

Design

Lead Designer: Julia Mullins Deputy Designer: Alexandra Hill Resident Designers: Will White, Miles Gilroy, Corin Hadley & James Lewis Head Photographer: Harriett Sanderson

Business

Managing Director (President): Livy Naylor Deputy Director (Vice-President): Angelica Singh Finance Director (Treasurer): Ella Mason Marketing Director (Social Secretary): Claudia Tipper Ads & Sales Director: Anika Sharma Media Ethics & EDI Officer: Lily Wheeler Head of Technology: Dhillon Thurairatnam

Social Media

Social Media Manager: Charlotte Kyle Deputy Social Media Manager: Eleni Paraskeva Social Media Creator: Daisy Yates

To read the full articles go to epigram.org.uk

Editor: Faniki Deche Deputy Editors: Sean Lawrenson & Adam Mountain Subeditor: Mihai Rosca

04 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Features ‘You’re your own person’: Final-year students share what they’ve learned at university Editor's Choice:

Hannah Stainbank, Second-year, English

And just like that, the 2024/25 academic year is over, making this our final print edition and, sadly, my final editor’s choice! I thought there was no better piece to choose than Hannah Stainbank’s compilation of final-years’ words of wisdom. Detailing mistakes made and lessons learned, with honourary mentions to some iconic moments (Cherry VK in La Rocca I’m looking at you) Hannah offers us a vital reminder to seize our university years, to take it all in, treasure every moment — good and bad. So to everyone preparing to graduate this year, I hope this piece encourages you to do some reflecting of your own and to share your own words of wisdom with a poor first year who has no clue how hard second-year’s going to hit them! from our parents’ generation often creates pressure to make university the best years of our lives by cramming in as much as possible.

However, it’s a good idea to try to make the most of these years. Nim Mudher, a fourth-year Biomedical sciences research student, says their biggest piece of advice is to ‘say yes to everything’ (within reason).

Ailsa, a fourth-year Art History and Spanish student, found that in her first year, ‘the chronic people-pleaser in me couldn’t say no to anything.’ Though it led to some good nights out, ‘I ended up painted green, passed out in my doorway, and my boyfriend at the time had to drag me up the stairs’. Ailsa soon felt burnt out.

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avigating university definitely gerbombs without getting palpitahas its ups and downs. It can tions, as it is about getting a degree.’ be hard not to feel like you should be making more of these short Katie, a third-year English student, years as you struggle to fit anything agreed that there’s more to unielse in. To help make sense of the versity than lectures and libraries: chaos (and maybe make you feel a ‘Uni is all about meeting people bit better about any questionable and learning when to let people go.’ decisions you’ve made on nights out), Epigram spoke to final-year She added that one of the most valstudents who’ve been through it uable lessons was learning how to all. Whether you’re a fresher or a finavigate the world on her own. It nal-year, their reflections are full of wasn’t always smooth. Going into honesty, mistakes, and hard-earned third year, after a late decision not wisdom for you to take to take a year out, Ka‘It’s hard, and it’s tie found herself withforward, whatever your next step may be. out accommodation. ok if you find it She was rejected from hard’ One of the biggest chal‘probably 40 different lenges of university life is striking places’ and was ‘considering living the balance between academics with a bunch of 60-year-old womand, well, everything else. Esme, a en.’ Finally, she found an ad on sixth-year Medicine student, reflectFacebook and took ‘a shot in the ed on a conversation she had with a dark’, motivated by the fact that friend about to graduate. The friend she liked the girl’s cowboy boots felt that she would have failed uniin her profile picture. All went versity if she didn’t get a first, as well, and ‘now they’re three of my ‘she never joined a society, never closest friends in the entire world’. went to sports night, never really Her advice for anyone looking for joined in “uni culture” because she last-minute accommodation: ‘[Not] was so focused on her first.’ Though everyone on Facebook is weird.’ the friend got a first and has since started a successful career, Esme Living with entirely new people in believes that ‘university is as much first year can be one of the most about meeting people, joining socioverwhelming (and exciting) eleties, finding out you can’t drink Jaements of university. Nostalgia

‘Regrets are always a learning point’, she continued, ‘But if I could go back, I would just shake my shoulders and be like, “You’re your own person, you don’t have to please everyone all the time.”’

Esme shares the sentiment that it’s key to remember who you are. She found that one of the biggest learning curves was finding out ‘how many posh people there are!’ Her advice is to remember that ‘you worked as hard, if not harder, to get here. Try not to feel inadequate and be proud of where you’re from. And always, always, call out people who use the word “chav”.’

She also shares regret about not putting her mental health first, wishing she had asked for help sooner: ‘University is tough. You’re flung hundreds of miles away from all the support you’ve ever known, to live in shitty accommodation, to fend for yourself for the first time. It’s hard, and it’s ok if you find it hard.’

Lizzie, a fourth-year Eco-

nomics and Management student, self into your hobbies. Also, ‘being also shares that slipping into ‘nocin La Rocca with all your pals, Cherturnal habits’ can be ‘so bad for ry VK in hand, Sports Car by Tate your mental health’ and stresses McRae playing’ can’t hurt either. the importance of going into university and making course friends. Third-year Biology student, Charlie, Though it’s all about balance, it’s said one of her favourite memoalso important to ‘go out ries is ‘enjoying Bristol in and dance until morn- ‘The best could the summer after exams’, ing and make those silly and there’s still more of still be yet to decisions. You will never that to come. So, whether come.’ have another time in your you’re just wrapping up life to do that consequence-free!’ your first year or counting down the days to graduation, it’s imporIt all seems to come down to puttant to remember to slow down ting yourself out there and knowand take it all in. No one gets it ing it does all tend to work out in completely right, and everyone’s the end, even if it doesn’t seem like journey through university ofit in the moment. Ailsa values beten looks very different. It’s a few ing frank with yourself about the hectic years full of messy nights, inevitable lows: ‘You’re not going mistakes, and friendships, but the to do well in every module. You’re best could still be yet to come. going to get some bad grades, and you just have to tough it out. As Katie puts it: ‘I’ve learned so much. I’m happy to close this BrisYou’ll probably fall out with peotol chapter. I hope the best years of ple, and boys will be mean, and you my life start now – what a blessing just have to learn from it.’ She finds to be able to say that.’

P h o to s C the best way to pick yourour t esy self back up is by of: Ne throwing lR od youren

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

05

Editor ................. Nel Roden Deputy Editor .............. Jess Cohen Deputy Editor .............. Daisy Yates Subeditor ....... Ilona Hoffmann Subeditor ......... Reuben Kerbes

2024/25 Academic year in review Bethany Banks reflects on the key moments from campus, to paint a portrait of the defining moments of this year the University of Bristol Bethany Banks Second Year English

First year Zoology student Thomas Hardyman lived in Metal Works this year, and when speaking to Epigram, said ‘Although luckily I was able to sleep at a friend’s house, it was still reasonably annoying and I felt I missed out on a formative university experience.’ However, Thomas was able to recognise the positives of Metal Works, as he reflected that ‘the shared experience of being in a new accommodation far from the main campus, as well as missing Freshers Week, definitely seemed to bring my flat closer together.’

Although the delayed start initially disrupted students' university experience, for some, it ultimately fostered a stronger sense of connection among them.

December 2024 – Bristol named 12th most

outrage and protesting at their continued use. The Forced Swim Test is a practice that places small rodents such as rats into inescapable cylinders of water, and has faced scrutiny for many years, deemed as ‘cruel and useless’ by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Certainly a positive achievement, in December the University of Bristol was named as the 12th most sustainable university in the world by the QS World Sustainability Rankings 2025. With the Green Party PETA were involved in the frequent ‘winning every council seat availa- protesting of the test within the ble inside their target parliaourtesy of: Muniversity campus, leading mentary constituency of hoto c eta demonstrations such as P lw Bristol Central’ and o ‘Dr Killsalot’ or the becoming ‘the larg‘Head of Animal est party on BrisTorture’, an activtol City Council’ ist dressed in a earlier in May, lab coat, goggles, it was great to and gloves, callsee the univering for an end sity only add to to the practice Bristol’s reputaby Beacon House tion as a sustainon Queen’s Road. able place to live.

The test has long been Some of the features a controversial way to that earnt the university 12th ‘investigate the neurobiology of spot include Green Labs certifica- stress’, and was finally deemed obtions for all laboratories on campus, solete under increasing pressure and the university’s beautiful Botan- from students and activists alike. ical Gardens, a great place to bask in the sun after a tough exam seaMarch 2025 – Derby Day son, and try and spot some wildlife in the upcoming summer months!

Derby Day is Bristol SU’s biggest sports festival, and went ahead January 2025 – Forced this March featuring 25 sports, 10 swim tests finally banned universities, and hundreds of students for an action-packed day Continuing the theme of the Uni- of sporting competition and fun. versity’s approach to wildlife, in January the use of Forced Swim Tests Bristol triumphed in many sporting were finally banned after much events, including a Men’s Lacrosse

s rk

Continued from the front page

sustainable university in the world

win over Cardiff, and the Men and Women’s teams for Basketball, the Bristol Spartans, reigning supreme.

Epigram spoke to Jed Hurrell, a second-year Business Management student, and Social Secretary of University of Bristol Men’s Rugby, about Derby Day and what makes it such a special day in the world of Bristol sports. He described Derby Day as ‘always lots of fun’, saying ‘it’s always cool to see the university as a collective get behind each other and support all the teams.’ It’s the sense of community and camaraderie that makes Derby Day so important to Bristol students, not just the chance to triumph against rival teams!

In typical rugby fashion, Hurrell highlighted the pros of ‘good beers’, along with ‘good vibes’, making it a ‘good day out’ to be had by all, sporty or not!

April 2024 – Bristol Reach University Challenge Semi-Finals Continuing with the theme of competition success, this April saw the Bristol team come far in University Challenge, reaching the semi-finals, another near-miss after 2023’s place as runner-up.

Photo courtesy of: Nel Roden

Photo courtesy of: Harriett Sanderson The team was made up of Captain Kevin Flanagan, who is studying for a PhD in AI, Ted Warner, a MSci Biology student, Olivia Watts, an Organic Chemistry PhD student, Bridie Rogers, a Medicine student and Reserve player Nathaniel Joyce, a MSci Biology student.

The team had an excellent run this series, managing to beat some formidable opponents, including Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Exeter and the Open University. Bristol’s players came in strong with a wide breadth of knowledge, from music, to physics, to the tradition of tea ceremonies.

Whilst the coveted first place wasn’t quite clinched this year, it can be said that certainly, Bristol are not far off now.

Overall, this academic year has seen some huge changes and developments for the University of Bristol, from new accommodations to new awards in sustainability, to sporting and intellectual success.

As students unwind and the term comes to a close, all that is left to do is prepare for the next academic year, which is sure to be even bigger and better!

06 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Features Me, my mum, and mental illness: Dealing with my mother's breakdown and keeping up with a degree An honest insight into the life of the Editor-in-Chief we all know and love

Annie McNamee Editor-in-Chief

I

’m in a small, windowless room in a hospital somewhere in the south of Glasgow. To my right sits my dad; he’s fiddling with a bottle of Coke, I’m fiddling with a bag of tangerines. I’m meant to be in a seminar 400 miles away discussing politics in Fahrenheit 451 or Lolita, but instead I’m sitting here, staring at an empty wall, waiting to see my mum.

The last time I had seen her was about three weeks prior, the day before I flew back to Bristol from home in Glasgow. By that point her health – mental and physical – had been declining for

months. I had tried everything I could think of to cheer her up; daily walks to Costa, family movie nights, I even bought her a journal. However, when mental illness really gets a grip on a person there isn’t much you can do – at least not without professional help.

On February 3 2024, my mum was sectioned and began a three month stay in a psychiatric ward.

to mental illness. I’ve gone through the Student Health Service’s four or five times for various ailments, and more of my friends have taken Sertraline than Ketamine, which is saying a lot in Bristol. I thought I knew what bad mental health looked like, but I’d never watched it take someone over so completely. The experience was alien, so I didn’t have the language to describe what was going on even if I’d wanted to. Luckily, though, I didn’t feel the urge.

Her story is hers to share (which she has!), but illness never just impacts one person. It worms its way Knowing that people might treat into every part of me differently or ‘When mental illness give me concessions I life, like a carnivorous jelly, consumreally gets a grip on a didn’t need made me want to crawl out of ing family memperson there isn’t much my skin. I am sentibers and friends you can do – at least mental when it comes along the way. So, I have my own story not without professional to childhood teddy bears and birthday to share. My experihelp.’ cards, but I’m also ence is no more or less important than anyone else's, from Glasgow, so I’m cursed with but it’s the only one to which I have the inability to be too sincere about complete access – and the one I anything. Where I would have usucould have done with read- ally communicated with humour I ing this time last year. was left mute. There wasn’t much funny about the situation, and jokes only made people (understandably) This wasn’t uncomfortable. I got to know the my introexact grimace Nathan, my extremeducly English boyfriend, makes when tion he’s thinking ‘I’m not sure if this is a joke or if you meant that’ very well.

This is when I began to realise how much of a taboo exists around the very concept of a psychiatric hospital. I found it easy to explain to people that my mum was unwell, but got a lump in my throat when I had to explain how.

When I did, people got tense.

Over 52,000 people were sectioned under the mental health act in the UK in 2023-24 – and the number is rising – which means that, statistically, someone in your life probably knows someone who has been hospitalised due to their mental health. So why are we still unable to talk about it?

We have hidden the realities of mental illness from public view.

You can picture someone going into surgery, doctors rushing down halls wheeling half-conscious patients as they shout for fluids; such a clear image of psychosis doesn’t exist in the cultural mind. The concept of a psychiatric ward sounds Victorian. You think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or the Bell Jar, of dungeons or electric shocks or straightjackets. Clearly, this is not a gracious picture.

tail how hard she worked in recovery, how excellent the standard of care was at Levernale. It’s another to explain how it all made me feel.

When it comes to my own experience, I have a severe case of proverbial lockjaw. Nobody, perhaps even including me, knew exactly how I was keeping last year. I threw myself into my uni work, and in a bizarre twist of fate my grades started to improve. I took on more shifts But it’s not the 1960s anymore, and writing for Time Out. I signed up being an inpatient saved mum’s for various societies, and applied life. It was tough – on her, on my to be Editor-in-Chief of this paper. dad, my seventeen year old broth- I went to the Eras Tour three times, er, even my dog got a radio show on sensed something Burst, returned to ‘Over 52,000 people was up – but it were sectioned under musical theatre for was essential. The the first time in years, nurses at Levern- the mental health act in set up a campaign the UK in 2023-24.’ dale hospital who against mould, won looked after her a few awards, and are real life superheroes; they are refused to miss a single seminar. paid very little for long shifts tak- For an outsider, I just looked like ing care of patients who are often I was having a great year. In realiaggressive or unresponsive. At the ty, I was doing anything I could to depth of mum’s illness, her nurses avoid thinking for too long. As far were kind to her, and able to care as coping mechanisms go, I supfor her around the clock in a way pose it’s better than becoming a that wasn’t possible at home. It’s smoker or getting into skydiving. essential that we get better at discussing the realities of psychiatric But it didn’t feel right to finish unicare not only to better recognise versity, where I spent most of my early warning signs in our loved time writing for Epigram, without ones, but to give credit to the doc- writing about the thing that shaped tors and nurses who dedicate their much of my university life, particulives to caring. These facilities and larly because this paper has been their staff members respect the dig- such a rock for me throughout. nity of their patients, and they don’t deserve to exist under the shadow This brings me back to that room of the ‘insane asylums’ of the past. in that Glasgow hospital last year.

My mum wasn’t very talkative at Living where we live, and having the depths of her illness, but every as strong a relationship as my fam- time we sat in that meeting room ily does, we were together, there were the lucky ones. Not ‘I'm not embarrassed two things she’d ask everyone has someby what happened to me: how’s Nathan? one at home who How’s Epigram? mum. In fact, I'm very Maybe there was can help them readjust after being dissomething magical proud of her.’ charged, nor is there about these two a hospital bed free for everyone parts of my life that permeated the who needs it. Those living in less barrier between my mum and I at affluent areas are three and a half the darkest times, allowing for some times more likely to be admitted to connection when we both needed it an inpatient mental health facility, most. Or maybe I just never shut up and if you don’t have a safe place to about my newspaper or my boygo back to, you’re much more likely friend and so branded them into to end up back in hospital. By not her brain forevermore. I’ll leave talking about the realities of men- you to decide which you prefer. tal illness, and how they can affect anyone, we do our most vulnera- When I began writing this article, ble neighbours a great disservice. I wanted to write what I needed to read last winter. I remember feeling I’m not embarrassed by what hap- so guilty for not being at home to pened to mum. In fact, I’m very help out, or for feeling anything bad proud of her. It’s one thing to deContinued on the next page

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

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Editor ................. Nel Roden Deputy Editor .............. Jess Cohen Deputy Editor .............. Daisy Yates Subeditor ....... Ilona Hoffmann Subeditor ......... Reuben Kerbes rallied to help me keep going. My at all when mum was struggling so much. I needed to be strong, to get friends bought me treats and sent me cards to let me know they were up and do my work, and not let thinking of me, my family down when ‘If you hit rock bottom and, of course, they needed me most.

Nathan was I put such a huge preswith enough velocity, sure on myself to deal there day and the rules of physics night.

Giving with the experience dictate that you’ve got to me a hug when ‘properly’, but there’s no such thing. I felt I bounce back up, and so I couldn’t sleep, cooking me had to deal with this mum did.’ dinner when I monster alone, because forgot to eat, walking me to uni I had no idea how many people when I didn’t want to go alone. around me would be willing to help carry all this extra emotionIt is only in the very darkest of times that you realise how many al baggage I found myself with. people there are in the world willing to hold up a light for you.

Watching my mum become unwell was also watching my dad care for If you hit rock bottom with enough her day and night. Visiting her in hospital was watching dozens of velocity, the rules of physics dictate that you’ve got to bounce back staff members who had dedicatup, and so mum did. She was dised their lives to helping people charged at the very end of April, in her position do thankless work just before my twenty-first birthbecause it mattered, because they cared. Struggling myself was seeday. By the time I held my party a ing how the people around me month later, she was up dancing.

All photos courtesy of: Annie McNamee

She’s been at home – except when we went on holiday to Naples – and feeling better ever since. That would not be the case had she not spent three months in hospital.

A year later, it’s not over. The feelings linger, the worry that somehow things might take a turn for the worse is always buzzing at the back of my mind, and sometimes I close my eyes and find myself back in that Leverndale waiting room. Few memories are etched into my mind as clearly as that one. Sometimes I can even still smell the hospital, that care-home mix of medicine, bleach, vomit, and sweat. All of that lives within me, haunts me sometimes, but I’m glad it does. I don’t want to forget because I don’t want to stop being grateful that we got through it.

I am, probably more than most, my mother’s daughter: she studied Film and English at uni, as do

I. She taught me to cry at every movie, how to do eyeshadow (she still does it better than me), brought me up to be politically active and interested, and neither of us would be caught dead at a

campsite. She’s even a journalist. I can’t overstate how much of me I owe to her, and I hope that in the past year I’ve been able to give a little of that care and love back.

No sleep, just vibes: The glorification of academic suffering Sophie Lee explores the glorification of academic burnout and how competitive studying can get

Sophie Lee Second Year, English

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lthough the university experience is often marketed as three years of partying, drinking, and socialising, it is easy to forget that the main objective of a university education is a degree, with students aiming towards academic achievement.

However, balancing academic study with personal life and extracurriculars can often lead to high levels of burnout and competition, creating an unhealthy environment for students.

Self-care is often the last thing on many students’ minds during intense exam periods, as all-nighters in the library become commonplace, and constant productivity is viewed as the norm.

This intense ‘grind culture’ has become embedded in student identities, with many students feeling as though if they’re not working all the time, then they’re not working enough.

The University of Bristol’s 2021 Student Wellbeing Survey found that higher levels of anxiety coincided with exam periods, with 43 per cent of respondents who took the survey before the summer assessment period reporting symptoms of anxiety, compared to 36 per cent of those that took

the survey during or after. Additionally, according to the 2024 Bristol Degree Outcomes Statement, only 26.2 per cent of students achieved a first class degree in the 22/23 academic year.

So the question remains, why is it that students feel so much pressure to achieve a first? While it is evident the data links academic burnout with heightened mental distress, it prompts a deeper inquiry - are academic expectations the sole driver of student anxiety, or are there broader cultural and systemic pressures at play?

During the 2024/25 academic year, the University of Bristol altered term dates to move January exams to December, creating an earlier exam period in both TB1 and TB2. This had a significant impact on many students, with Emma, a second year Chemistry student, commenting that she found the Christmas exam season ‘insane - there was no way I could revise so much content in such little time [and] I couldn’t go over content during term since the workload then was too intense.’

Although the University marketed the shift in exam period as beneficial to students’ mental health, personal experiences of students have been seen to contradict this, with many reporting that revising for exams while also completing coursework contributed to higher stress levels.

Although the simple answer to this might seem to be to separate exams and coursework more clearly, overlap-

ping deadlines aren’t the only factor in rising levels of academic anxiety.

Often, a sense of competition can arise, as students strive to be seen to be working at all times of day. Online tools such as Flora, Notion, and the Pomodoro Method provide ways for tracking workloads, but these statistics can give rise to harmful comparisons, as students may compare how many hours they’ve been revising. This can lead to unhealthy habits, as studying becomes competitive, rather than focusing on academic outcomes. In this way, revision has shifted from a tool by which to learn content, to a way to show off academic superiority. These competitive attitudes clearly aren’t present in all students, but the evidence suggests that it has a huge impact on many students across the university.

Eleni, a first year Psychology in Education student, told Epigram that she

‘felt a lot more pressured to be revising constantly’ during exam season, and often left ‘for the ASS at 7pm and [didn’t] get back until 3am.’ These unhealthy habits can have a knockon effect on other aspects of student life, with Beth, a second year Film student, agreeing that, after long nights of studying until the early hours, she tends to spend the next day sleeping, which negatively impacts her mood.

It’s clear to see that these competitive environments lead to both personal and academic burnout, so what is the best way to combat this?

Common ways of students coping with burnout are to socialise with friends, maintain normal routines, and make sure to reward themselves while studying. Although the main point of going to university is to get a degree, life at university is so much more than this. From getting involved

with university societies, to attending quiz nights at local pubs, or going on a charity shopping spree, there’s so much that can be done to avoid academic burnout. Although it can seem like there is no escape from ‘grind culture’, it’s important to remind yourself that University is more than just the degree you walk away with.

Even stepping away from your laptop screen for five minutes can help take your mind off the work you need to be doing. At the end of the day, even though your degree is important, you should never sacrifice your mental health in favour of academic achievement. The University’s Students’ Health Service offers informal wellbeing advice as well as professional medical support, so never feel afraid to reach out.

Photo courtesy of: Reuben Kerbes

EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Editor’s Note: As I come to the end of my tenure as editor of Epigram, I’ve got a lot to be proud of. We won some awards, increased our readership; all the usual stuff journalists bang on about.

But what sets us apart, and what we’re proudest of, is Break the Mould.

This campaign was born out of frustration and many mouldy, mouldy bedrooms. Plans were drawn up at the height of winter from damp student bedrooms, and our launch was marred by intermittent rainfall. Break the Mould may not be changing the world (yet) but, if nothing else, it gave a voice to the thousands of students at Bristol University living in substandard housing at luxury prices.

And that’s not even all. We are still in the early stages of discussing our Rent Review system with the SU, and we’ll continue to spotlight the very worst mould horror stories our readers shared. This month, I hope you enjoy Ella’s.

Thank you for all of your support for Break the Mould. Back when I was stewing in my freezing student house back in December, I had no idea that anyone else would care about my little passion project. As it turns out, pretty much everyone does.

Here’s to a mould-less future!

Annie McNamee, Editor-in-Chief

Landlord replaces black mould with slightly greener mould to signal commitment to sustainability Epigram sits down with second-year Philosophy student Ella Chambers and her landlord, Arnold Wette, to unpack both sides of the mould issue present in Ella's house

Sagal Khalif, Second Year Law

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n a bold move applauded by exto be called a landlord, claiming actly zero people, Redland-based the term is ‘too capitalist’, opting, landlord Arnold Wette has replaced rather, to be known as a ‘property the longstanding black mould in custodian’. ‘It’s all about building a regenerative relationship between one of his student properties with a more ‘ethnically-ambiguous’ humans and nature, something we lost with the introduction of tenshade of green mould, in what he describes as a significant ant protection laws.’ step towards climate-re‘They’re students. sponsible housing. 'We’re Wette currently They’re supposed to charges £250 pppcm all about greener living’. cough.’ for a 7-bedroom maisonette in the heart ‘This isn't about cutting corners’ said Wette, who refuses of Redland, coming fully furnished with original 1970s carpets and two mushrooms, a price that seems likely to increase with his new initiative.

vided some incense sticks, an Asthma + Lung UK pamphlet, and an invoice for cleaning fees.

‘Students don’t need s o l u t i o n s,’ Wette stated. ‘They need to try breathing properly. I breathe perfectly fine in that house.’

The landlord was last seen spreadWhen asked if tenants had reported ongoing health issues, Wette ing a handful of chia seeds in a damp corner of the readjusted the goggles of his PPE gear; ‘they’re living room for the students.

They’re ‘Wette has dismissed purpose of ‘textural all allegations of supposed to cough. variety’. In response to the ongoing comBuilds resistance for neglect.’ their nights out. Also, plaints from students, the University has if they’re coughing, it means their lungs are working.’ released a statement advising students to seek support if they are Second-year Philosophy student having issues with housing, and proElla Chambers, who believes she vided a helpful three–step process: has been living in the property since September, says she first raised the 1. Email your landlord. issue of mould ‘Sometime around, I 2. Wait 2-3 months want to say November? Could it be 3. Go to your A&E August?’. Pausing, she stared blankly at the wall. 'Honestly, it’s hard Despite the pressure from the to remember anything these days. young tenants and the Student's I haven’t had a coherent thought Union alike, Wette has dismissed all since Teaching Block One. The allegations of neglect. ‘I’m not some walls started growing black and Dickensian slumlord,’ he said whilst now I can’t tell which memories are polishing a reclaimed wood clipmine and which belong to the flat.’ board. ‘I’m cultivating micro-environments. These kids are lucky, In response to her initial comthey're living inside a living thing. plaints, Wette delivered a humidiHow many people in Redland can fier instead of the promised dehusay that?’ According to a survey midifier, along with a handwritten conducted by Epigram, it turns out note suggesting she ‘lean into the air’s natural liquidity.’ He also proPhotos courtesy of: Miles Gilroy

pretty much all of them can.

Immediately after their respective interviews, Ella had forgotten who we were and asked if we were there to treat the mould in her room, and Wette had announced a rent increase for the following calendar month. Epigram reached out to him about this change, and he confirmed it was due to the mould enhancing the market-value.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr Wette has since requested a correction to the article, insisting the mould is “chartreuse” and “emotionally intelligent.” We regret the oversight. *This article is satire, any

resemblance to reality is purely coincidental*

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

Break the Mould

wins Best Project or Initiative at the SPA awards Miles Gilroy SciTech Deputy-Editor

tional scale, far beyond just Bristol.

fter five months of incredibly hard work, over 600 signatures, coverage from the BBC and The Big Issue, official acknowledgement from the SU, and endorsement from Lucy Pears (among many, many other feats), Break the Mould has won Best Project or Initiative at the Student Publication Association’s national awards ceremony.

According to David Chipakupaku, journalist and producer at Sky News, ‘Break the Mould is a vitally important collection of student journalism, highlighting an issue that is becoming prevalent across the UK housing sector. The reporting is forward-thinking, and the ambitions of Epigram with this idea should be noted. Smart, zeitgeist-aware campaigning journalism, worthy of a national.’

An honour shared by the whole team behind the campaign, this award reflects the countless hours put into the fight against poor student living conditions as well as the equal concern for the issue on a na-

This award is directed at the team behind Break the Mould, but, of course, it is as much yours as it is ours. This campaign would be nothing more than an idea without the hundreds of you signing

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Our Proposal Nathan Flanders, Policy Lead Epigram is launching ‘Break the Mould’ to improve the conditions of student housing in Bristol and beyond, with a particular focus on tackling mould. We are lobbying the Bristol SU to extend their ‘My Rent, My Rights’ campaign by introducing ‘Rent Review’, a student property review system where renters can review their house or flat, for example its condition, any issues that arise, and the speed and effectiveness of the landlord’s responses.

This would work together with an SU-run accreditation system, where good landlords are approved by the SU. Both the rating and the accreditation would be visible to all students. This would incentivise landlords to focus on the quality of service they are providing to tenants, and help students to avoid poor housing.

On behalf of the entire Epigram team, I would like to thank you from the deepest point in our collective hearts, and welcome you to continue this journey with us as we enter the new academic year.

Whether you’re graduating this Summer, or you're stuck here for another year or two, always remember to…

Break the Mould!

Photo courtesy of: Julia Mullins

What's next for Break the Mould?

Break the Mould has been a huge success! But where does it go from here? Editor-in-Chief and brains behind the campaign, Annie McNamee, considers Break the Mould's future

Annie McNamee, Editor-in-Chief

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o far, Break the Mould has been focused on raising awareness on campus, and beyond, about the poor quality of housing most students pay high rents for, and platforming student horror stories. That may be great, but we know what you’re thinking. ‘What about Rent Review’, you cry, ‘wasn’t that, like, the whole point?’ Fear not, dear reader. The short answer is we’re working on it.

If you’re unaware, Rent Review is a system thought up by our Policy Lead, Nathan Flanders. It Photo courtesy of: UBTV

As Epigram, we will also create a dedicated page on our website containing information about mould, its consequences, and best practices to prevent and fix it. This, we propose, would be linked to on the ‘My Rent, My Rights’ campaign page to give students an accessible bank of information that they can use.

the petition, spreading the word, and standing up for what students deserve. It is thanks to everyone reading these words right now that Break the Mould has been recognised in such prestigious fashion.

Sign the Petition!

would be a sort of TripAdvisor for landlords, where you’d be able to check out your landlord before you signed on the dotted line. If they had good reviews, you’d go ahead without worry. If they didn’t, you might think twice. This isn’t supposed to be a punitive measure, it’s about holding landlords to account, and empowering students to make informed choices about where they live. Sounds great in theory, but, we’re sure you’ve noticed, it doesn’t exist yet.

These things take time, but we’ve begun talking to the SU about helping us make Rent Review a reality.

Sadly, many of us will graduate before the system is up and running, but we hope that the legacy lives on, and that some of you first and second years will see it become a reality in your (university) lifetimes.

In the meantime, we’ll continue sharing your stories. Got a dodgy landlord or a leak that won’t go

away? Give us a message on Instagram or email us at editor.epigram@ gmai.com and share your story. You can even be anonymous. We won’t stop yelling about the shit conditions so many of us live with until they go away. Maybe by the time out kids are at uni, this will all be a distant nightmare. Fingers crossed.

We’ll also keep providing you easy to understand information about how to prevent and battle mould. We have an entire tab on our website dedicated to the stuff.

It’s properly helpful, we promise.

Finally, thank you so much to everyone who’s supported our cause. We’re not done yet, but we couldn’t have gotten started without the overwhelming support of the student body. At the end of the day, we’re just a bunch of students who got fed up, and seeing that we’re not alone has been exhilarating. We’ll see you in the next year to continue Breaking the Mould.

10 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Opinion Kebabs, Kwik-E-mart, and culture: Reflections on interactions between students and South Asian business owners Amaya Lewis-Patel

Editor's Choice:

Second Year, English and Classical Studies

The post-night-out kebab shop pilgrimage is more than just a greasy tradition — it’s a rite of passage for students across the country.

But how often do we really see the people behind the counter? Too often reduced to the faceless, catch-all term “bossman,” their stories are left untold. In this edition’s Editor’s Pick, Amaya Lewis-Patel peels back the foil wrapper to explore these overlooked late-night encounters and unpacks the broader, often stereotyped, portrayals of South Asians in popular culture. nerdy brown kids that I had encountered in school – maybe this was the new, adult version of it.

'Bossman.' The name asserts a respect, a deference to a ‘boss’ and superior, even as it confirms the (ab) use of this man’s labour and dignity.

There is nothing deferential in the term. An appellation of racial, socioeconomic othering – yet another way of laughing at the brown man.

Photo courtesy of: Roman Rezor

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n my first year at university, my accommodation was opposite a kebab shop. Dehydrated and hungry after a night out, my flatmates and I would herd towards its welcoming neon sign. As a pescatarian who cannot stand the dryness of falafel, I abstained. I would wait for the others just outside the fried-food warmth of the shop.

in the quiet tones of his native tongue) the din. Then, there was an obsequious, 'Thanks, bossman.'

Then a handshake-cum-high-five dripping in irony and the grease of the chips that would be left half-eaten on some kitchen counter stained with years of vodka-crans and VKs.

And on the way to the club, we would walk past the corner shop.

Again, I would witness the strange interactions between white male While my friends recited their students and the man behind the orders, learnt by heart, I eavescounter. Some indropped on the side joke would conversations of ‘Walliams perpetuated the drunk stu- and legitimised a stereotype be referenced by the boy, and the dents around us. for the whole generation of man would reply White boys in readers who are now my with a laugh or a quarter-zips taught response would deliver peers.’ through smilingly loud lectures, gritted teeth. I felt sick and avoided boasting about who they had 'got eye contact. There was nothing obwith.' I was never quite sure who viously ‘wrong’ with what the boys they thought they were impressing. were doing, and they may have The middle-aged man behind the viewed it as friendly banter. Yet it counter would attempt to conduct made me remember the fake Indithe carefully tuned orchestra of an accents and stereotypes about cooks behind him over (or under,

Think of Raj, the corner shop owner in the David Walliams children’s books, like Gangsta Granny or Boy in a Dress. He provides humour because he is a caricature of South Asian corner shop owners. Walliams perpetuated and legitimised a stereotype for the whole generation of readers who are now my peers.

These novels, or their BBC adaptations, were my first exposure to the South-Asian-corner-shop-owner stereotype. I remember being excited by the fact that the corner shop opposite my grandparents’ flat was also called 'Raj’s News'. I assumed that the fictional Raj was based on the Raj I knew, who spoke in Gujarati with my grandfather on his weekly visit to buy the Sunday paper for my grandmother. This man had watched me grow up, and always greeted me with a smile and a 'say hello to your grandparents.'

I wasn’t sure how to make sense of the dirty shop, financial opportunism, and sneakiness of the Raj in Walliams’ books. He was nothing like my Raj. Unwilling to explain racial stereotyping to an eight-yearold, my mother pointed out that it was a common name in India: it must be a coincidence. She reminded me that my uncle was also called Raj – and he was a doctor.

Though South Asians make up the

largest non-white ethnic group in as being rooted within the comthe country (6.9%, compared to 4% munity. A shop is only your local Black and 1.3% Chinese and Asian for the years of university, or more other), our invisibility in the media likely for the one year that you live is undeniable. Alienation and ‘othnear it. The relationship formed ering’ rely on the ability to reduce with its owners is necessarily temthe multiplicity of South Asian porary and given less thought. identity to a stereotype, a single racial image. It is not unique to So, next time you go into a corner the UK: in Amershop to collect ica, there is ‘Will you greet the owner by your Vinted parApu from The name like an old friend, or cel, or stumble Simpsons who into a kebab shop will you only remember that owns the ‘Kwikfor a late-night catch-all term, ‘bossman’?’ doner, rememE-Mart’, voiced by a white man ber that you are putting on an Indian accent. being allowed into the space. Your voice can go down a few decibels for Yet it is undeniable that this stethe two minutes you wait for your reotype stems from reality. Many cheesy chips. Because maybe, in South Asian immigrants to the twenty years, when you revisit your UK in the late 20th century university city, the shop will still turned to self-dependency, openbe there, unchanged – if it has not ing their own shops. These busibeen pushed out by a minimalist nesses have often been open for coffee shop or supermarket chain. generations, seeing children become parents and grandparents.

Will you greet the owner by name like an old friend, or In a student city, however, the conwill you only remember that stantly changing clientele seems catch-all term, ‘bossman’? to break down this sense of shop Photo courtesy of: George Bakos

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

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Editor ....................Karen Mends Deputy Editor ..................Alex Creighton Deputy Editor .................Hannah Moser Subeditor ..........Riana McConochie Subeditor ........................Ellen Jones

Is studying abroad worth it? Student reflections on a year away you outside your comfort zone.

Studying abroad is often hyped up to be a life-changing opportunity, but does it actually live up to the expectations?

Sophia Stockden Fourth Year, English and Spanish

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fter spending a year away from Bristol on my own year abroad, I’ve experienced all the highs and lows of living in another country, from the thrill of independence to the challenges of homesickness and culture shock.

Now that I’m back, I find myself questioning: was it all worth it?

One of the biggest takeaways from my year abroad was the sheer amount of personal growth, as cliché as it sounds. Moving to a new country forces you to be independent in ways you might never have experienced before.

Navigating public transport in a foreign language, figuring out how to set up a SIM card, or even just grocery shopping in a completely different system - it all pushes

At first, it was overwhelming, but, over time, I became more confident in handling challenges on my own.

It goes without saying, the cultural immersion was incredible. From adapting to a new lifestyle, discovering local traditions, and learning how to properly pronounce words I’d been butchering for years, I found myself understanding the world from a fresh perspective.

If you’re studying a language, this aspect is even more valuable - it felt like the language finally clicked for me. University might be able to teach you how to undertake a political debate or discuss climate change in your chosen language, but no number of seminars can compare to making small talk at the bus stop, gossiping with friends, or even just eavesdropping on the train in your target language. By the time I left, I had a level of fluency that finally felt natural rather than forced.

Then, of course, there was the travel. Being based in a new country meant that weekend trips to nearby cities or even different countries were easier and often

cheaper than they’d be from the UK. It was a massive privilege to be able to afford to do this, it felt like the gap year I never had.

But, while Instagram might make studying abroad look like the perfect year-long holiday, the reality isn’t always so picture-perfect.

The first two weeks were some of the hardest, everything just felt so frustratingly difficult. Simple tasks you would never think twice about at home, like paying at the supermarket, suddenly became the most nerve-wracking ordeal in the world.

Homesickness hit me much harder than I expected. I missed the little things – Sunday roasts, familiar accents, even the weirdly specific Bristol Uni in-jokes. While I made great friends abroad, it sometimes felt isolating to be so far from my usual support system. Thankfully, this can be remedied with regular calls to home and even looking into the uni’s support programmes.

Academically, the adjustment was also tougher than most had anticipated. Whilst I cannot comment on the experience of studying abroad, as I did an internship, many of

my friends realised different university systems meant different expectations, grading styles, and sometimes even language barriers when it came to coursework and groupwork. As someone who worked, it’s hard enough to talk to your boss in your native language, let alone in your second one.

Financially, studying abroad can also be a major strain. Even with grants and loans, the cost of flights, visas, and a generally higher cost of living in some countries added up quickly, especially since Brexit meant the end of the Erasmus funding. Thanks Brexit. It’s also incredibly difficult at times to find guidance on visas or travel advice, I’m sure if you ask anyone who’s done a year abroad about this, you’ll be met with a groan and an eyeroll.

And then there was the return home – something no one really warns you about. Reverse culture shock is real. After spending a year adapting to a new way of life, coming back to Bristol felt both comforting and strangely disorienting.

Friends had moved on, the city felt different, and I found myself longing for the independence and

adventure I had just left behind.

So, was it worth it? Despite the challenges, I wouldn’t trade my year abroad for anything. The growth, experiences, and memories made it one of the most rewarding parts of my university life. However, it’s not for everyone. If you’re considering studying abroad, it’s worth thinking beyond the highlight reel; there will be difficult moments, and it requires resilience and adaptability. But, if you’re willing to embrace both the highs and the lows, it can be an experience that shapes you in ways you never expected.

I think, speaking on behalf of most students who have done a year abroad, it will be one of the toughest things you’ll ever do, but also the most rewarding. In fact, if you need extra reassurance, according to a recent poll uploaded to Epigram’s Instagram story, 86% of responders said that they thought their year abroad was worth it.

Would I do it all over again? Absolutely. But I’d go into it knowing that studying abroad isn’t just about the adventure, it’s about learning to navigate life in an entirely new way.

Living in the student bubble limits our experience of Bristol Not my hometown, but I know my way around?

Ruby Smith Third Year, English

O

n TikTok, this caption has recently been accompanied with picturesque slideshows of people’s university cities. For Bristol students, it probably includes sunset snaps of the suspension bridge, fresh veg for sale on Cotham Hill, and Park Street on a bright day.

But the radius of what makes up ‘Bristol’ for most university students is pretty limited; the majority of students look for housing in the Clifton, Redland, and Cotham region. Even those, like me, who venture up Gloucester Road, are rarely more than a 20-minute bus ride from city centre.

Compared to most university cities, Bristol students are somewhat spread-out. Other areas with large student populations often have single neighbourhoods overrun.

The Guardian reported that in the Lenton neighbourhood in Nottingham, as many as 90% of the houses are student households.

This large proportion has created major tension between student and family homes in the area. So, by contrast, does this small dispersion of student households over a few more central neighbourhoods mean Bristol students are more engaged with their community?

When I moved into my second-year house, in the St Andrews neighbourhood, we were somewhat surprised to see our neighbours and their little children. First-year accommodation puts you in another world. Your life is spent in

small flats, with only student neighbours. This was a bit of a change.

We got their phone numbers and were promptly added to a group-chat for our road. On it, people sent pictures of local cats gone missing, cars parked badly, and dates of street parties.

Our neighbours brought round a green recycling bin when they had a spare. It was all very quaint.

tion directed at students living in these family neighbourhoods.

You’ve probably come across the signs hung on lampposts in areas like Chandos Road, reminding students to keep quiet at night. On the university website, they encourage students to introduce themselves to their neighbours with an ‘introduc-

tory greeting template.’ It’s clear the university wants to encourage good relations between students and the community, even if it’s just to save their own backs if things get messy.

For the full article go to: epigram.org.uk

But, this sense of community can be somewhat rare for students.

Bristol City Council claims that areas with high levels of ‘Houses in Multiple Occupation’ (HMOs), specifically student housing, results in ‘reduced community engagement’ because of the transient population in the area. Certain roads or neighbourhoods are completely changed by the student presence.

The University gives out informa-

Photo courtesy of: Kristina Papp

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EPIGRAM 01.06.25

NEWS More than 500 students faced penalties for using AI last year A freedom of information request submitted

by The Student Eye revealed that more than 500 students at the University of Bristol faced AI related penalties in the 2023/24 academic year.

Annie McNamee Co-Editor-in-Chief

T

hree years ago, generative Artificial Intelligence was a novelty, and its best use was making uncanny images of monkeys in hats. Now, it's well on its way to taking over the world, and, by extension, university campuses.

Still in its infancy, the hard data on how much students use AI and how it's impacting their education is limited. However, a freedom of information request submitted by the online publication The Student Eye has revealed that there has been a 7414% increase in students being penalised for their misuse of AI in assessments since 2021, with 526 being issued in the 2023/24 academic year.

This statistic alone portrays a slightly sensationalised version of events. There are obvious reasons as to why, as AI becomes more powerful and more ubiquitous, more students are using it, and misusing it. However, given that these numbers are from last year, it seems likely that this year that number will have risen again.

The university considers 'unauthorised use of artificial intelligence to complete a piece of work

Photo courtesy of: Bristol SU

in a manner that circumvents the design of an assessment' to be cheating. It told The Student Eye that it does not rely solely on AI detection software to decide whether or not a student accused of cheating is guilty, and that such programmes simply '[provide] additional evidence to aid a discussion with the student as part of a possible plagiarism investigation'.

Some are completely against its use in an academic setting, whilst others argue that, used correctly, it can be a powerful tool for furthering your learning, automating the necessary, if tedious, elements of studying – such as referencing, and leaving you with more time to do the actual thinking. The university's official stance is somewhere in the middle. A statement on the University of Bristol's website states that: 'Generative AI cannot replace the hard work of getting to grips with threshold concepts in a discipline. ' At the same time, it can offer support to students, co-piloting with them in novel ways, sense-checking, summarising, and guiding students with structuring ideas.

'We need to define its use, rather than letting it define how we and our students use it.'

In terms of assessments, the 'default' position is that 'minimal' use, such as 'using spell and grammar checkers to help identify mistakes but not rewrite chunks of text' is acceptable. Some schools adopt a zero tolerance policy, while others have begun to bake the use of AI into their exams. In order for a penalty to be issued, a student would have had to use AI in a manner that is specifically prohibited by their school.

Co-Editors .......... Maud Humphries, Josie Hodgson, & Will White Deputy Editors .......................... Bea Learmouth & Rhiannon Jenkins News Investigations .................................................................... Sofia Lambis Subeditors ......................................... Otto Proctor & Cerys Larsen

P

to ho

tesy of: Fre e pi cour

Bristol SU responds to Supreme Court Equality Act ruling

k

ed from discrimination as women.

Bristol Students’ Union has responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.

Sofia Lambis News Investigations Editor

O

n April 16, the UK Supreme Court delivered a judgement in the case of For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers, ruling that the 2010 Equality Act's definition of sex is 'binary' and refers to biological sex.

Consequently, someone with a female Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) ‘does not come within the definition of a ‘woman’ under the Equality Act.’ This means that although transgender women remain protected from discrimination on the grounds of gender reassignment, a protected characteristic, they are no longer protect-

Following the ruling, British Transport Police announced that trans people held in custody will be searched by an officer of the same biological sex, regardless of whether they have a GRC. Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Chair, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, said ‘single-sex services like changing rooms must be based on biological sex.' The EHRC have issued temporary guidance on single-sex spaces and will provide updated codes of conduct to services including the NHS and prisons.

In a statement issued last Thursday, Bristol SU said they were ‘disappointed and upset’ by the ruling.

‘We recognise and stand in solidarity with our trans community.

Transgender, non-binary, and intersex identities are all valid, irrespective of any court ruling,’ they said.

The SU said they were liaising with the Trans, Women’s, and LGTBQ+ networks, and will continue ensuring their Members Code of Conduct protects trans students. Links to helplines

such as Switchboard and Trans Aid Bristol were also provided.

The statement comes after the Doctor Who society wrote an open letter to the SU, asking them to outline how student groups can support trans students and to 'clarify that transgender individuals are still protected under the code of conduct.' You can read the SU’s full statement online or via our website.

Universities across the UK have also responded to the judgement. The University of Durham pledged to 'comply with UK law and to ensure the privacy and dignity of every member of our community,' whilst Southampton SU acknowledged that students may 'be feeling afraid' and 'vulnerable' due to the ruling.

Last month, the UK's first openly trans judge Victoria McCloud announced her plan to bring the government to the European Court of Human Rights over this ruling. She says the judgement left her feeling 'contained and segregated' and will seek a declaration that the ruling 'violate[s] [her] fundamental human rights'.

‘A powerful voice for Bristol students’: Epigram awarded at Bristol SU 50 Most Influential Sofia Lambis News Investigations Editor

O

n May 8, Bristol SU announced the winners of this year's 50 Most Influential Students award.

The awards showcase individuals and groups who have gone above and beyond, shaping the university experience for people around them, and demonstrating 'exceptional dedication, talent, and a genuine desire to make positive change.'

Epigram featured among the winners, recognised as 'a powerful voice for Bristol students.'

'The

society

offered

free

op-

portunities for students to enter journalism, spotlighted underrepresented groups and investigated major campus issues.

Its first-ever campaign, Break the Mould, fought for better student housing, gained SU support and attracted national media coverage.

Epigram’s reporting on housing, student safety and inclusion has driven real change. The team also overhauled design and distribution, boosting readership and expanded its contributor base to over 500.

With five wins at the Student Publication Awards, including Best Publication and Best Project, Epigram has grown into a dynamic platform for high-quality journalism,

student-led advocacy and lasting impact on the Bristol community.'

Among the winners was Epigram Co-Editor-in-Chief Annie McNamee, who was recognised as an individual winner for her 'outstanding work' launching the Break the Mould campaign and 'creating a diverse, supportive community for student writers to grow their skills.'

Faniki Deche, Epigram sports editor, was also recognised for his work as the first ever coach of the University of Bristol Women’s Fourth Football Team. Faniki 'has helped establish the Fourth Team as a competitive side, with many players now set to progress and the team aiming for promotion.'

Photos courtesy of: Harriett Sanderson, Julia Mullins and Annie McNamee

EpIgram's Top Ten - Group pic - Headshots section goodbyes - Most Likely to

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EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Epigram's top ten moments from the 2024/25 academic year

Daisy Yates & Reuben Kerbes Co-Deputy Features Editor & Features Sub-Editor

From landmark interviews to award-winning campaigns, 2024/25 has been a year to remember for Epigram. We’ve hosted renowned journalists on campus, handed out over 800 papers in a single day, and even uncovered the story behind Bristol’s most iconic kebab van.

With so many highlights to choose from, there’s no way we could possibly rank them. So instead, here are ten of our proudest moments from the year: in no particular order, but all equally brilliant.

Getting behind the counter at Jason Donervan

Epigram’s first ever liveblog at fight night

Every student has their Jason Donervan story. Whether it’s a postclub pilgrimage or an emotional reunion with cheesy-chips after a deadline, the iconic Clifton Triangle van has become a rite of passage for Bristol students. This year, our Sports Sub Editor Mihai Ro�ca sat down with JJ, son of the eponymous Jason, to uncover the story behind the establishment.

As student fight-nights become more popular, Epigram’s Sports team sought to capitalise on these growing events, and wanted to do it in a way that has not been achieved here at Epigram before.

Faniki Deche, our Sports Editor, opted for a live, ‘as-it-happened’ style of reporting, as well as a social media take-over to document the excitement of such an event.

Mihai discovered how ‘Jason Donervan’ came to be, tracing the path of Mustafa Durdu (who we all know as Jason), who moved to the UK as a young migrant with a dream of lifting his family out of poverty. Through relentless hard work and determination, Mustafa built his business from the ground up, creating a legacy that would not only provide for his family but also set an example for his son, about the importance of perseverance and giving back.

This live-blog style was a huge hit, keeping students who were unable to attend themselves up to date by the minute, as well as showing a post-event breakdown of what happened, and when.

The success of this style was recognised, and the Sports team have continued on this trend of live-blogging, each met with a resounding victory for Epigram and our outreach!

Coverage of the SU elections Led by News Editor, Will White, and supported by our very own rising star Sofia Lambis, Epigram’s News team worked tirelessly this March to cover the University of Bristol Student Union elections.

Kicking off with a special editorial, the team introduced readers to the candidates and examined the key issues shaping student politics this year. As voting opened, our team dived into highlighting manifestos, fact-checking claims, and encouraging students to engage with the process.

The excitement culminated on the 14th of March, with live results night coverage, reporting from Senate House as the new SU Officers were announced. From interviews to real-time updates this was an all-hands-on-deck moment for Epigram, and one Photo courtes y o we are very f: J am proud of.

es s wi Le

Photo courtesy of: Annie McNamee

Photo courtesy of: Dylan Gardner

Partnership with Watershed This year our Film&TV section achieved a major milestone by securing an exclusive partnership with Watershed - Bristol’s leading independent arthouse cinema.

This collaboration awarded contributors access to the early staff screenings, allowing them to review films before they hit general release.

It was the work of Sofia Webster, our Co-Deputy Editor, that made this opportunity possible - but it’s the entire section, and any student with a passion for film who now benefits from this connection.

The partnership not only strengthens Epigram's presence in the local arts scene, but also gives student writers the unique chance to review cinema that falls outside of the mainstream.

Redesign of print and socials As part of a new direction for Epigram in 2024/25, we hired our fantastic Art Director Julia Mullins, and Deputy Designer Alex Hill.

With a clear vision and unstoppable work ethic (we’re talking all-nighters that stretched to 7am), they led a full redesign of our print editions and social media presence.

From cover to cover, their work has breathed new life into Epigram, combining sharp visuals with a clean and modern design, and we must admit - it looks bloody gorgeous.

Julia and Alex’s dedication and creativity this year have elevated our publication to a new standard, transforming it into not just something to read, but to truly admire.

Photo courtesy of: Julia Mullins

Epigram’s first ever live-blog at fight night

Photo courtesy of: Julia Mullins

YEARBOOK

Our Break the Mould campaign This year, Epigram launched ‘Break the Mould’, a campaign spotlighting the unacceptable standard of student housing. With first-hand student testimonies, investigative reporting, and a dedicated print edition, the campaign called on the SU and local authorities to take action. Our petition to introduce a ‘Rent Review’ system, where students can review how effectively their landlords responded to issues, gained over 600 signatures, and the campaign was featured by titles such as BBC News, The Big Issue, and Greatest Hits Radio!

Epigram also won ‘Best Project or Initiative’ at the Student Publication Awards this April for our work on ‘Break the Mould’! This is an incredible result and a testament to all the hard work that went into this campaign. We are excited to carry on our work campaigning for students next year, so keep your eyes peeled…

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

Writing workshops As part of a move to make student journalism more accessible for beginners, this year’s Epigram team held a series of interactive workshops for new writers. Editors from Music, Scitech, Sports, and Features all hosted classes that broke down the ins and outs of each of their respective sections.

Whether you were a seasoned journalist or a complete beginner, there was lots to learn! From interviewing techniques, writing style, or general conduct practice, no one left without feeling like a more confident journalist.

Not only were they massively informative, they also provided a comfortable space for new writers to get acquainted with the teams, and helped reinforce the sense of community we aspire for here at Epigram. With high turnout, great feedback, and a fresh set of editors, you can be sure that this will return next year.

Student Publication Award wins

Women in Media careers talks

Leading on from our successes in 2024, Epigram brought home five awards at the yearly Student Publication Association (SPA) awards this year, including Best Publication! Credit is due to everyone that has worked on Epigram, and it couldn’t have been achieved without all of our contributors, editors, and executives. This is something everyone who’s passionate about Epigram should be proud of, but there are some standouts worth commending:

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Epigram traditionally hosts a 2-day event, honouring some of the brilliant women shaping today’s media landscape.

This year, we decided to take it further and expand the conference into a month-long series!

Organised and hosted by our incredible Equality and Wellbeing Officer Lily Wheeler, every Wednesday in March we welcomed panels of three inspiring, passionate women who shared their candid insights into navigating an often male-dominated industry. From personal challenges to career defining moments, the sessions were not only empowering, but also practical, giving attendees the chance to ask any burning questions they have about breaking into the world of media.

As part of the event, we were honoured to have welcomed Susanna Reid - presenter of Good Morning Britain and former Epigram Editor - who returned to Bristol 30 years after taking the helm of our paper.

Susanna reflected on how Epigram shaped the early years of her journalism career, offering both heartfelt stories and sharp insights into the realities of working in national broadcast media. Her presence was not only a proud moment for Epigram, but a powerful reminder of where student journalism can take you.

Our Co-Editor-in-Chief, Annie McNamee, won the ‘Billy Dowling-Reid Award for Outstanding Commitment’, and she couldn’t have earnt it more. Juggling her final year of university and Co-EiC is already an achievement, but to bring Epigram to the centre stage with five awards is undoubtedly worth serious commendation.

Not only this, but Epigram also won the prize for best Science Publication/Section. This can be accredited to the quality work done by our SciTech team led by Corin Hadley, who pulled the section from being potentially scrapped, and made it an integral part of Epigram.

Sofia Lambis also took a podium, winning ‘Highly commended’ in the SPA’s ‘Rising Stars’ category. She is definitely one to keep an eye out for!

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Talk series with Sarah Gordan and Paul McNamee One of Epigram’s most exciting events this year was our free Talk Series, organised by our Managing Director, Livy Naylor. Featuring some of the biggest names in journalism, this series aimed to inspire the next generation of media professionals. It gave students a rare chance to hear directly from industry greats, ask questions, and discover how they too can succeed in the volatile media industry.

We kicked off with Sarah Gordon, former Business Editor for the Financial Times, who shared her fascinating career journey - from reporting through the 2008 financial crisis to navigating the digital shift in journalism, all while balancing motherhood. Next was Paul McNamee, Editor of The Big Issue, a publication that prides itself on a ‘hand up’ policy, partnering with those who too often go unheard. McNamee offered straight-talking advice and useful guidance on how to climb the journalistic ladder, and how to stay true to yourself whilst doing it.

We’re honoured to have welcomed these speakers this year. For students dreaming of a future in journalism, this was a chance to get a peek at the inner workings of the industry and come face-to-face with some of the legends in the field.

(From left to right) Photos courtesy of: Bristol SU, Annie McNamee, SPA, Julia Mullins

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YEARBOOK

EPIGRAM 01.06.25 Photos courtesy of: Harriett Sanderson

Senior Team

Annie McNamee Co-Editor-in-Chief

What to say about the Epigram team! If these are the journalists, policymakers, and lawyers of the future, we’re all in safe hands. It’s been an absolute joy to edit this paper for the past year. We’ve won awards, hosted Susanna Reid, and broken national stories, but the real news is the friends we made along the way. (Sorry. But also seriously.)

I’d like to extend a special thanks to my ever-reliable senior team (pictured to the left) and the incomparable Livy Naylor, Epigram’s very own Madame President.

She’s kept this ship from sinking several times, and she sent the money over to get these pages printed. We would be nothing without her ability to balance choral singing – which she is excellent at – and managing a newspaper. What a versatile girl. Designers Julia Mullins and Alex Hill also deserve a special shoutout for their talent. The pages you are looking at only look this gorgeous because of their eye for detail and 2am shifts in the ASS library.

I can be a pretty intense editor at times. Deadlines are deadlines and I won’t publish anything that isn’t up to scratch, but every single one of these people has risen to every challenge I’ve posed. Help me organise an entire campaign? Sure, easy. Can we put a yearbook in the final edition? Consider it done. Who wants to take the megaphone and shove newspapers into oncoming hands outside Senate House?

Everyone, apparently.

From all of us in the senior team, thank you, thank you, thank you. What a wonderful year, what gorgeous faces. Expect me to be in contact for many, many years to come.

NEWS

Will White News Co- Editor

Nel Roden Features Editor

Features

From nationwide riots, to Supreme Court rulings, to SU elections, to mouldy homes, news covered so much this year. It’s been so lovely to work with everyone paying such close attention to the hustle and bustle of Bristol life.

After two years with Epigram, it’s finally time to say goodbye! Thank you so much to the Features team for always patiently bearing with me, for all the incredible editorial work and writing, and, most importantly, for all the hilarious chats in pub gardens over a shared pint! Daisy, Jess, Reuben, and Ilona — it’s been a pleasure, you lot are the best in the biz.

Opinion

Bruno Bridger Arts Editor

Karen Mends Opinion Editor

Serving as Opinion Editor has been an incredible experience that’s opened my eyes to a diverse range of perspectives and challenged me to think in ways I never had before. I'm incredibly grateful to my amazing team, the wider Epigram family and Amaan. Thank you for making my time in the society so meaningful.

Arts

Our incredibly hardworking team of Arts Editors has continued to expertly promote Bristol's burgeoning creative community, push the boundaries of arts criticism and engage with a vibrant and creative student body. We have been lucky enough to interview and work with some incredible artists, writers, actors and creatives who continue to help make Bristol the epicentre of Photo courtesy of: BBC Arts progressive art making and discourse

YEARBOOK

film & TV

Photos courtesy of: Harriett Sanderson 01.06.25 EPIGRAM

Max Bradley-Cole Film & TV Editor

With the most incredible and hilarious team, I have absolutely adored creating a section that enables its writers to really get to grips with their loves and loathes of the current cinematic zeitgeist. We've had amazing opportunities, a wealth of incredibly talented writers, and a series of masterfully written reviews that would put any other publication or Letterboxd user to shame.

SciTech

Corin Hadley SciTech Editor

Benji Chapman Music Editor

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music

Our music section contains five divas, no more, no less. We are a team of dreamers and go-getters who take student journalism just the right amount of seriously. This year, we interviewed some incredible artists, spotlighted local talent, but maybe most importantly of all had a good time along the way; making new friends and hosting karaoke nights.

Faniki Deche Sport Editor

Sport

You collect this many outrageously cool, lightning fast people together and there’s no way the buzz can be contained. It’s been so amazing to try and make that spiralling stream of ideas hold together as a paper with yous. You’re all incredible and it’s meeting people like you that makes life worth living.

Epigram Sports 24/25 will go down in history as a section that broke new ground.

We secured solid partnerships with Student Fighter promoters with our trailblazing live blogs and brought quality coverage of Derby Day. Surely the greatest team of all time. Not until next year ;)

Design

Livy Naylor President

Julia Mullins Design Lead

You can tell by those big grins that Alex and I have become an iconic duo.

Every Thursday afternoon in the office with you has been an absolute joy — even when we've been fighting desperately with InDesign. Print redesign, socials redesign, style guides, logos, posters... We have put in so many hours over the past year and it's absolutely paid off. Shout out to the SciTech boys and Will W for always lending us a hand at short notice. <3

Executive

What an amazing year! Everyone should be so proud of their contributions.

Epigram really is an amazing way to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. As I’m leaving I’ll let you in on a secret that I hope gives anyone considering joining a nudge in the right direction - I only wrote my first article this year (after becoming President!). I know that the team next year will do an amazing job and I can’t wait to see what they achieve.

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EPIGRAM 01.06.25 Group photo and headshots on page 19 courtesy of the wonderful Harriett Sanderson

YEARBOOK

Epigram Class of 2025

Annie McNamee

Amaan Ali

Sofia Webster

Will Standring

Livy Naylor

Angelica Singh

Ella Mason

Co-Editor-in-Chief

Co-Editor-in-Chief

Deputy Editor

Deputy Editor

President

Vice President

Treasurer

Claudia Tipper

Anika Sharma

Lily Wheeler

Maud Humphries

Will White

Ads & Sales

EDI Officer

Dhillon Thurairatnam Head of Technology

Josie Hodgson

Social Sec

News Editor

News Editor

News Editor

Rhiannon Jenkins

Beatrice Learmouth

Sofia Lambis

Otto Proctor

Cerys Larsen

Karen Mends

Alex Creighton

News Deputy Editor

News Deputy Editor

News Investigations

News Subeditor

News Subeditor

Opinion Editor

Opinion Deputy Editor

Hannah Moser

Ellen Jones

Riana McConochie

Nel Roden

Jessica Cohen

Daisy Yates

Reuben Kerbes

Features Editor

Features Deputy Editor Features Deputy Editor Features Subeditor

Opinion Deputy Editor Opinion Subeditor

Opinion Subeditor

Ella Heathcote

Bobbi Carsley Arts Deputy Editor

Julia Anna Masluszczak Max Bradley-Cole Arts Correspondent Film&TV Editor

Meadow Wattret

Arts Deputy Editor

Film&TV Deputy Editor Film&TV Deputy Editor

Music Editor

Megan Foulk

Aditi Hrisheekesh

Sophie Scannell

Corin Hadley

James Lewis

Ellie Barnes

Music Deputy Editor

Music Deputy Editor

Music Subeditor

SciTech Editor

SciTech Deputy Editor SciTech Deputy Editor SciTech Subeditor

Faniki Deche

Adam Mountain

Mihai Rosca

Nathan Flanders

Julia Mullins

Alex Hill

Eleni Paraskeva

Sport Editor

Sport Deputy Editor

Sport Subeditor

BtM Policy Lead

Lead Designer

Deputy Designer

Deputy Social Media

Chien Wen Sow

Miles Gilroy

Benji Chapman

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EPIGRAM 01.06.25 Photos courtesy of: Harriett Sanderson

Epigram's Most Likely To...

YEARBOOK as voted for by the team!

Annie McNamee

Epigram's biggest mvp

Co-Editor-in-Chief

be the next susanna reid

Co-Editor-in-Chief

lose something on a night out Epigram's Best dressed

Annie McNamee Benji Chapman Music Editor

Aditi Hrisheekesh Music Co-Deputy Editor

Epigram's funniest

News Co-Editor

Be active on the Groupchat

News Co-Editor

write a Times bestseller write a Times bestseller be a spy for the tab

Will White

Will White Sofia Webster Co-Deputy Editor

& Sofia Lambis

News Investigations Editor

Nathan Flanders Break the Mould Policy Lead

BE Up at 2am working on epigram

Julia Mullins Lead Designer

cause chaos at the Formal leave the social early

Julia Mullins Lead Designer

Alex Hill Deputy Designer

EPIGRAM's Best dance moves

Faniki Deche Sport Editor

EPigram's Biggest ubtv hater

Faniki Deche Sport Editor

epigram's most 'rah'

Miles Gilroy Sci-Tech Deputy Editor

This yearbook was brought to you by Annie McNamee and Julia Mullins, with massive thanks to Alex Hill and Harriett Sanderson!

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

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BeyondCampus Susanna Reid returns to Epigram 35 years on The final event of Epigram’s Women in Media saw Susanna Reid, of morning television fame, deliver a keynote presentation about her career from editor of Epigram to Piers Morgan’s co-presenter.

Julia Mullins Second Year, Philosophy & Politics Susanna Reid is a longstanding presenter of ITV’s Good Morning Britain – their award-winning breakfast show – the culmination of an impressive career working for programs like BBC Breakfast and BBC News 24. Susanna’s interview with Boris Johnson was shortlisted for a BAFTA in 2023 and she won Network Presenter of the Year in 2024, which she is nominated for again this year.

In 1990, Susanna Reid was studying Philosophy and Politics at the University of Bristol and in her second year, responding to a desperate advert, became the Editor of Epigram. The paper was established just

chat with our current Editor-in-Chief, Annie McNamee, to tell us what she’s been up to since her Epigram days.

Susanna spoke of the importance of ‘grabbing your opportunities.’

She said ‘if it hadn’t been for Epigram, I simply wouldn’t be the presenter of Good Morning Britain.’

She impressed the value of maktwo years earlier making Susanna ing mistakes; ‘you don’t need to one of the first editors. In those be brilliant to start with, you need days Epigram printed weekly and to be willing to learn. You need to they were – or rather Susanna was accept you are going to screw up’ – ‘obsessed’ with membership of and told us to ‘please don’t worry the National Union of Students. about failing.’ She told us that ‘it’s 'No normal student is obsessed okay to take a break’, which is the with the NUS,’ Susanna laughs, same advice she admitting it was her gives her children. biggest mistake as ‘If it hadn’t been for Editor of Epigram. Epigram, I simply wouldn’t Susanna’s combe the presenter of Good mand of the 35 years later, SusanMorning Britain.’ audience was na is back on campus unsurprising, conand – more imporsidering her career. The audience tantly – back at Epigram for the fiwas engaged, laughing on cue at the nal event of our Women in Media tales of her five years working be2025 series. In a stunning Epigram side Piers Morgan on Good Mornred suit no less. After a ‘nostalgia ing Britain. She politely described tour’ of her old haunts, she’s sat working with Piers as ‘lively, pardown to ticularly the morning he walked off... but you can only do that once’ later adding that it ‘may surprise you to know, but Piers and I are friends.’

So, what does a day, – or more accurately morning –

look like at Good Morning Britain?

She tells us that she’s ‘got [her] routine down to a fine art’ likening the early mornings to ‘airport time’; alarm set for 3:40. She reckons the only ‘sane’ people awake are those headed for a flight, but I think she’s forgetting this is prime time for students dragging themselves home from a club. By four a.m. she’s on her way to Television Centre and brushing up on the morning’s headlines. Then it’s shower, wardrobe, hair and makeup, ready for the five a.m. editorial meeting. By six a.m., come hell or high water, they go live to the nation.

Susanna admits that it is a high-pressure environment, but that is why ‘[she] absolutely love[s] it.’ This fast pace drew Susanna to broadcast, saying that it ‘felt so instinctively right for me.’

The Sun declared that Good Morning Britain would be cancelled by Christmas. The article – printed on page three – is now framed on her wall. She proudly told us that Good Morning Britain celebrates 11 years on air this month, while the page three model is no more.

Susanna was composed for the whole two-hour talk, but like the politicians she interviews she carefully avoided one question. When asked by a member of the audience what the biggest mistake of her career was she said, ‘that is not the worst, I’ve done things I won’t mention.’ No ammunition for a headline sadly, but good to know she wouldn’t underestimate the room full of eager student journalists.

After the talk, we crowded around as Susanna pulled vintage issues of Epigram from her Louis Vuitton suit‘I wish I could go back case. Excitedly flipping While at the BBC, and do it all again.’ through pages to see Susanna came secwhat had been added ond in the 2013 seaor cut over the years – no SciTech son of Strictly Come Dancing and section back then.

I admitted to explained that the ‘magic glitter Susanna that I had been the one dust’ brought her to the attention to scrap ‘Between the Sheets’ of ITV. So, Susanna left the BBC and promised her it would be to launch Good Morning Britain. back in its rightful place. I didn’t know quite how far back it went.

Leaving the nation’s favourite child, the BBC, in favour of the comparaHaving Susanna back in our own tively glamorous ITV made her ripe lecture hall was a reminder of picking for the tabloids. Paparrazi Epigram’s legacy and an inspirawere camped outside her home, and tion for how far our paper might Good Morning Britain found themtake us too. She told us, ‘I wish I selves in headlines ‘pretty much every single day’ in their early days. could go back and do it all again.’

Photos courtesy of: Harriett Sanderson

22 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Arts Noreen Masud on her memoir A Flat Place Epigram interviews University of Bristol tutor, lecturer and acclaimed writer Noreen Masud, discussing trauma, solidarity and resisting the demands of capitalism in an interview on her 2023 memoir A Flat Place

Ella Heathcote Arts Deputy Editor

I

f you look up Noreen Masud’s memoir A Flat Place you’ll be met with pages and pages of reviews, recommendations and awards it’s been shortlisted for. And it’s nothing if not entirely deserving of these, but I knew Noreen before I knew her award-winning memoir.

I knew her as a lecturer and tutor (my favourite one, to be clear) – her course on trauma and literature was eye-opening for me, her seminars were unmissable, some of the most engaging and open discussions I’ve had since I’ve been at university, attested by the attendance which barely dwindled over the term despite the 9am Monday slot we’d been cursed with.

Noreen’s book A Flat Place follows her through various flat landscapes, beginning in Lahore, Pakistan,

where she spent her childhood, and continuing in the UK. Memories of Noreen’s life are woven into her pilgrimages, grappling with identity – not just her own, but often the identity of a place, the impact of colonial legacies.

it to her agent, he responded, ‘It’s very nicely written, but it’s weird.’ It was at this point that she explained her diagnosis of complex PTSD to him, how it informs her view of the world, and he told her she should really include it in her book. ‘The image of the flat landscape’ she says, ‘became an increasingly compelling way for me to understand what has happened to me in my life.’

This was the birth of her memoir.

With this in mind, I ask her if the writing process was therapeutic for her. ‘I didn’t write it to be therapeutic’ she tells me straight away, yet ‘I think that was the first time I wrote about my life and someone didn’t I sit down with Noreen in her oftry and minimise it or dismiss it. I fice on campus, and was believed, and she immediately puts that was really ‘So much of our meme at ease (I think it’s powerful’, ‘now it’s dia is [...] owned and usually the interviewjust a bit of paper er that’s meant to do controlled by people who (she flaps the book that, but I imagine my around in the have an active interest nerves were palpable, air) I’m no longer in perpetuating and so I was grateful). We tormented by it.’ increasing inequality in start talking about our society’ the book; she tells me Did she feel any that when she started pressure, then, to writing it, it was meant to be solely round things off for the sake of about flat landscapes, without menthe book? She responds by telling tion of her own life. When she sent me about her strong resistance to

the idea of ‘healing narratives.’ ‘Capitalism says you’ve got to heal so that you can go back to being ‘productive’’, she gestures air quotes, expressing her opposition to this, her desire to resist those demands.

Photo courtesy of: womensprize.com

propriated, misread to fuel Islamophobia.’ She makes her point very clear, ‘my father behaved the way he did not because he was a Muslim, ‘I think that was the first but because he time I wrote about my life was an Anglophile, because he was and someone didn’t try left with this great and minimise it or dismiss sense of postcoloit. I was believed, and that nial inadequacy.’

But how can she do this? How can a contemporary writer focus on ‘solidarity’ rather than being ‘useful according to capitalism’s terms’?

Noreen’s father was was really powerful’ Her point couldn’t a dominant figure be more relevant in in her childhood, the face of Elon Musk’s recent fasciwhose abuse is recalled throughout nation with the Rochdale grooming the book. Yet she also writes that cases, inspired by and inspiring yet he was ‘not a bad man.’ I ask her more Islamophobia in the press and if it was hard, in the face of his inonline. ‘Muslim men are a socially fluence, to write these words, to atpalatable monster’, Noreen says on tach this to his legacy, and her reply this point. She becomes visibly uptakes the conversation on an unexset now, as she begins talking about pected turn. She mentions the slew recent events in Gaza: ‘it makes me of popular books ‘about bad Mussad and angry when people say “so lim men’ circulating when she was many of the people killed in Palyounger, and the normalisation of estine are women and children”,’ Islamophobia in recent years. ‘I was ‘but what a tragedy it also is to absolutely terrified of reinforcing lose beautiful, caring, loving Palesthose ideas’; ‘I did not want what tinian men. Their lives matter too.’ had happened to me to be misapWe move away from the topic, and onto another important figure in Noreen’s life, her mother.

She was largely a passive figure in Noreen’s childhood, something she grapples with in the book. The relationship between the two is by no means simple. But as they journey through Orkney together, her mother begins to open up, and their relationship seems to strengthen. I ask Noreen about her relationship with her mother since the book’s publishing. It was a huge step for her, she says, she can now look at her mother and say, ‘I don’t understand you, but I love you.’ This motto has had a far-reaching effect on Noreen’s life. This is what’s important, she asserts – to be able to stand with someone even if you can’t relate to them. It is a message of hope that Noreen conveys, both in her book and in our conversation, of solidarity through struggle.

Photo courtesy of: National Trust Images/Chris Lacey

Photo courtesy of: Penguin Books

Our lives are dominated by extremity – of emotions, of opinions and voices, of events – so I would encourage every student to read A Flat Place, and to consider flatness for a while.

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

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Editor ..............Bruno Bridger Deputy Editor ..............Ella Heathcote Deputy Editor ............Elizabeth Abbot Subeditor ..............Bobbi Carsley Arts Correspondent .........Julia Masluszczak

A prescription with no side-effects: Can the arts help curb our poor mental health?

Grace O'Sullivan explores the arts as a positive force for change in a climate of poor mental health

Grace O'Sullivan Third Year, English

I

t’s difficult to diminish the conversation surrounding poor mental health in England. Particularly since the pandemic, mental health difficulties have skyrocketed, with one in four adults statistically likely to experience a mental health problem each year. These statistics are daunting, and present a destabilisation to the way that we live, work and socialise. In light of the suggestion of cuts to disability benefits, which include those claiming on the basis of mental illness, the necessity to approach this health crisis is pressing.

Encountering mental health troubles, particularly as a young person, should not be carried with shame.

Faced with an unstable future, in which media exposes us to the shocking realities of the world around us, it is unsurprising for our emotional wellbeing to take a hit in response to some extreme stimuli. The necessity to look after yourself can seem feeble, but it remains important.

Whilst I can’t imagine that there is one fix-all solution to the state of mental health in England, the phrase ‘arts on prescription’ intrigued me. Surely, doctors rely on medicines, and not something as unscientific as the arts? Could the arts, which are facing harsh budgeting cuts in the UK, begin to be recognised as an important contribution to a national health issue?

Arts on prescription refers to an alternative dialogue between health professionals and patients. A professional would look to address a person’s relationship to the arts, suggesting participation in something creative as part of a more holistic attitude to supporting their emotional wellbeing. Artistic experiences are recommended as a therapeutic aide, potentially alongside mental health medication or therapy. It’s important to note that this is in no way a conspiracy theory against Big Pharma - I believe that medication is a valuable tool for people struggling through rough patches. This mode of prescribing is designed to work with, not instead of, existing medical practices; Sir Jeremy Farrah, chief scientist of the World Health Organisation, urges us not to see ‘Science and the Arts as separate endeavours’.

This phenomenon began to become especially prevalent among practic-

es in Switzerland, where park runs, comedy and museums are being put on prescription. Here, it is notable that the arts is not a purely individualistic indulgence, that its implementation encourages people to proactively engage in their wider communities. In a society suffering from a loneliness epidemic, encouragement of communal participation in creativity may help address an even wider social issue.

Whilst I myself, a person gifted with an upbringing decorated by artistic culture, am receptive to this shift, I feel it is important to acknowledge the social barriers that artistic culture is arguably structured on. Research shows that the creative industries remain 'elitist and inaccessible' to those outside the middle and upper classes. With lower socioeconomic groups having historically been more at risk of suffering with mental health difficulties, is it callous to recommend an elitist culture as an antidote?

Leisure time itself is a commodity - can everyone afford to fritter it on the new Barbican exhibition?

However, with a more nuanced approach to the rollout of prescribed arts, the position of artistic culture as an elitist institution could actually become more inclusive. In selective clinics, patients receiving this prescription have been offered

Arts Recommends

the opportunity to access these cultural outings for free. If this trend is consistent, access to the arts becomes cheaper, not merely reserved for those who grew up in middle-class, Guardian-perusing households. Not only could we anticipate a healthier society, but the wealth barriers to creativity may become slowly eroded if it is implemented on a large scale.

Personally, I think this prospect is a cautiously optimistic glimmer in a climate that is rapidly failing to recognise the value of the arts. Creativity alludes to a more hopeful representation of the human spirit

Photo courtesy of Grace O'Sullivan - one that is generous and open to uniting communities. With services under crippling pressure, a quick fix in the form of medication may still sound like the logical route.

I hope, however, that arts on prescription will eventually be recognised as a valuable contribution to improving our collective wellbeing as well as benefiting individuals. Jarvis Cocker (whose advice I am very susceptible to accepting) declares that we all possess a creative spark; I'd like to think that realising this can only be a force for positive change.

To read more go to epigram.org.uk What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981)

Slow Days, Fast Company (1974) This book is a sumptuous picture of Southern California that envelops the reader in its luscious haze – a far cry from the drizzly Bristol April showers. In just 200 pages, Babitz whirls through ten visions of a sun-baked Los Angeles and delves into the glamourous lives within, from film-stars consumed by fame, to haughty socialites consumed by drugs, to deadly Italian femme fatales. This book is a love letter to the bygone Los Angeles of the 1960s and 70s, and Babitz’s seductive wit will make you long to join her on those slow, romantic days.

Kitchen (1988)

Assembly (2021) Navigating work, family and relationships, Brown depicts the experience of assimilation by laying bare the consciousness of an upper-class, black, British woman and the constant sense of alienation she feels in modern Britain. In only 104 pages, set into vignettes, Assembly lets the reader piece together the narrative for themselves, confronted by a narrator exerting her own disintegration under the weight of the pressures of the societies she must conform to for acceptance.

26 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

music The five things Peter Hook taught me about graduating head at the moment, which is that People don't become experts just everyone 'starts from zero' when because they read books. They got A review of the they try something completely new. their hands dirty and put thembassist's latest show When you graduate, no matter selves out there. Is that sometimes turned into of a what's next, things a very scary thought? reflection on what are going to signifiAbsolutely. But is it posjournalism taught me cantly change. That ‘Nobody wakes up sible to get started someis unfortunately pretwhere? Most definitely. a professional.’

Benji Chapman ty much unavoidable.

Music Editor Just look at how badAt one point or another, we'll have ly it went when Peter Hook to try something that we've never opened the Hacienda nightclub. t's the final stretch now. Studone before. Maybe you're startOr how 'Blue Monday' actually dent tenancies are coming to ing a new job, a Master's, or only lost money on each copy, due to an end, internships (if they've just beginning to figure out what its expensive silver inner sleeve. been secured) are being preit is you want your career to look Even into his later years, when the pared for, and last-minute ticklike, if you even want one that is.

Hacienda first opened, the fact that ets to South-East Asia are being he and the other members of New scrambled for. The world, as we Something that keeps me sane Order were opening a club with no know it, is coming to an end. though is the fact that when Peter previous experience meant that it Hook bought his first was basically a commercial failure.

University is finishing. bass, he didn't even But they learned from it. And ‘Things are going to But, luckily for you, we know the difference sure - on paper - it was a flop. But signifi cantly change. ’ have some good music between that and a sixwhere else would you want to be to listen to while we stringed electric guitar. during the '90s in Manchester? go out and face the wide world.

He mistakenly bought a £10 ampliHere's what I had to think about fier without a speaker, so when he The world will keep following my interview and more plugged it in, no sound came out. turning recent attendance of Peter Hook's But the fact that the bass guitar Get Ready tour that is keeping me was so poorly made meant that he Right now, it feels like the world is optimistic in such uncertain times. had to find a new way of playing it. only turning faster. New technoloWhen I started writing for EpiAnd he wrote Unknown Pleasures gy seem to come out every other gram I was basically just talking on it. He started from nothing, and month that alters the course of hisabout the music that interested then co-wrote one of the greattory, a new divide arises between me. If you dig around you'll even est post-punk records of all time. political factions that didn't exist find one of my first ever pieca week ago, and global conflicts es, which was about the histoYou never know what perspective only increase in tension and scale. ry of the Minecraft soundtrack. you'll bring to the table, precise-

I

As Hooky took to the stage at the Marble Factory for a whopping three hour set of New Order and Joy Division classics, my mind was cast back to the time I was first writing for Epigram, and earlier still got first introduced to Unknown Pleasures by my mum aged 16.

The resultant piece that came to my mind wasn't so much a conventional review, but more of a homage to the voyage that music journalism has taken me on, from Minecraft soundtracks to a (semi) review of one of the greatest bassists of all time.

Everyone leaves a little bit clueless There's a saying going around my

ly because you're a newcomer.

Experience beats knowledge The author Mark Twain said, 'Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'

I can't decide if I like this saying, or the way Peter Hook said to me better, which is that when he was twenty, he 'didn’t know [his] arse from [his] elbow'.

What I'm articulating here is that you can't learn without actually doing something, and often failing in the process. Nobody wakes up a professional. You can only gain experiencing by doing stuff on the fly.

We could probably all do with a pause. With the structure of university being pulled from under me and you, this is now more of an inevitability now than a choice.

When the world lost Ian Curtis in 1979, there was almost no understanding of mental health: it just didn't "exist". Nowadays, as Hooky himself said, 'I'm better educated.'

The need for people to take the time to connect with the things and people that really matter post-university are essential: it will probably actually help you achieve your longer-term life goals in the long run, because your priorities are in check.

Don't let the "finish line" in life become the centre of your own uni-

verse, because for better and worse, me and Hooky agreed that the world is largely indifferent in the grand scheme of things.

Whatever it is that fulfils you, just hold onto it tight. And don't be afraid to step off this crazy magic carpet ride every now and then. Just remember there's a seat saved for you when you're ready to get back on.

Sometimes you just need to sit on your friends You're probably either currently living in the same house or at least the same city as your best friends.

First and foremost, don't panic if you're not all staying in Bristol.

Not only will you likely stay in touch in one way or another, but making friends at the next place you're headed to will be just as exciting as the process of making new friends during university.

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sheer force if necessary.

So take a seat. It's a long ride ahead.

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Say thanks to mum And last but not least, say thanks to your mum. Fittingly, this was who Hooky devoted his final song to at his show in Bristol. In his own words, 'that's where we all go when things go wrong.'

Sure enough, when things hit the fan, that's normally where I'll be headed. After all, I wouldn't have even known who Peter Hook, Joy Division, or New Order were if she hadn't recommended them to me.

Going back to an earlier point, our mums are probably so sought after as a port of advice for their invaluable experience in handling our own breakdowns and neuroses.

So when you get the chance, say thanks for all they do. It's definitely worth a lot more than one day a year, that much is certain.

Just don't be afraid to call old Remember also whether it's a friends out when they're neglecting mum, pet, friend, or mentor, that their wellbeing later on. They may there will always be people like even thank you eventually. When I mums who are there to look out had my interview, Hooky for you. Even when unisaid that it was the main ‘Don't be afraid versity comes to a close. thing he regretted not to go back to your And they don't just do doing to help Ian Curtis. it because they have mum.’ to: you will give them a This was what inspired lot of reasurrance too, me to pick it as another piece of in your own way. It's this unspoadvice that was ringing in my mind ken, reciprocal kind of love that when I saw Hooky live: 'I would really makes the difference here. have took him home and I would have sat on him until he got better'.

So when the student houses are We all know, inside, how caught departed from, and we all move up things can get in our train of on to whatever is next, don't be thought. Nobody is supposed to afraid to go back to your mum. deal with these thoughts alone, and that's what friends are for.

But keep your head up and remember that, with the next chalThe best friends that I've met at lenge, you have people like that university are the ones who don't to guide you through it. Or, in the just ride with you on the "train of very least, some incredible muthought". They'll know when to sic to soundtrack the experience! pull you back onto the station with

Photos courtesy of: @wearecassia

Editor Deputy Editor Deputy Editor Subeditor Subeditor

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

27

..............Benji Chapman .............. Aditi Hrisheekesh .............. Megan Foulk .............. Amelie Peters ...............Sophie Scannell

In conversation with Cassia Cassia are a band built for the summer. Every year, their music reflects days spent in the park

Sean Lawrenson Co-Deputy Sports Editor

F

ollowing a busy few months touring in North America and Mexico, the band are preparing to take their new album on tour across the U.K. Having played Trinity Centre back in the winter of 2022, their show at SWX on 15th May feels both a big and natural step up.

Vocalist and lead guitarist Rob Ellis, bassist Lou Cotterill, and drummer/ vocalist Jacob Leff sat down with Epigram to discuss everything from touring to their dream collaboration. At the beginning of our Zoom call, the boys quickly tell me about the impact of their North American tour. 'We had a bit of a heavy night last night,' Rob Ellis tells me, echoed by Jacob who informs me they only had a couple of hours' sleep.

Despite this, they are in good spirits, each armed with a coffee close by, as our conversation drifts over to their new album Everyone, Outside.

I ask them how they came to settle on that name. 'We were just chatting about it one day, trying to figure out artwork ideas... it just seemed to make sense.'

'It’s an answer to our last album,' Jacob Leff tells me, referencing their 2022 album Why You Lacking Energy?. 'Because our last album was a little bit slow, and I think that it’s just fun to play live [...] There’s still sentimental stuff, not necessarily overly positive stuff,' Rob adds. 'But when we wrap that in these really upbeat feelings, it really gets us, like a happy/sad thing.'

The balance they strike is evident in the first four singles released from this album. The seemingly upbeat 'Miles Out' is filled with melancholic reflections on a relationship turned sour.

Their music combines feet-tapping rhythms with catharsis, a collective experience close to healing. 'You’ve kind of got to reverse it,' Ellis says.

'It’s like 'Perfect Day' – you can’t tell if it’s happy or sad, and I think that’s really cool.' Within five minutes of the call, I can tell just how much the band get on.

'It’s kind of like therapy, be-

cause we don’t really chat to each other,' jokes Cotterill.

Wanting to know a bit more about the people behind the band, I ask them about their favourite gigs they’ve been to as fans.

Their choices – Elton John, Tame Impala (playing Blackpool, naturally) and Vampire Weekend – highlight their love of the live experience. Whether it’s losing yourself in the audience or, in Leff ’s case, chatting to Tame Impala while having a smoke outside, that feeling is hard to define but unmistakable.

Moving back to the album, I ask what can be expected from the rest of the record. 'There’s lots of different vibes,' they tell me.

'They exist in the same space, but there’s lots of newer, unexpected twists and turns.' The band seem so excited when speaking about the project.

They tell me the album is the culmination of a process that lasted just under a year and a half. 'Usually it was like, get in the studio three days after touring and you’re just like "what have you got?" and it’s just like "nothing",' Jacob laughs.

This extra time led to around

60 songs. 'It’s the classic band thing where it’s like yeah, 100 songs,' Jacob says.

'2000 songs,' Rob adds to the joke.

Despite so much material, they didn’t feel overly sentimental when choosing what made the cut.

'We felt alright about bringing the scythe down on certain tunes,' Rob says. 'It should happen fairly insistently, for it to hit.'

The band describe the chopping and changing of songs with such freedom, and the album

Medieval Summer Sounds

Photo courtesy of: Parlophone Records

Photo courtesy of: Warner Music UK

benefits for it. You move from upbeat, feet-tapping songs like 'here & now' to floating ethereality in others, such as 'fractured.'

The album is a fantastic piece of work from the band. I ask if there is any artist they’d be keen to collaborate with in the future.

It would be good to have something that’s a really interesting mix, between us and them,' Jacob says. Rob’s immediate answer of 'Pitbull' cracks everyone up.

For the full article go to: epigram.org.uk

To read more go to epigram.org.uk

Photo courtesy of: Nettwerk Productions

Photo courtesy of: 4AD

Blue Bell Knoll

Golden Brown

Bigmouth Strikes Again

Byrd one breere

The Stranglers

The Smiths

Traditional Folk

Cocteau Twins

The defining song of this year’s online medieval revival. The song charted at #2 upon its release in 1982 and has seen a TikTok renaissance, providing the soundtrack to many a viral medievalcore video. The videos feature fast paced images spanning from medieval facsimiles to BBC Merlin, collaged and cut up to the rhythm of harpsichord stabs.

The lyric ‘And now I know how Joan of Arc felt / as the flames rose to her Roman nose / and her Walkman started to melt’ is what tenuously connects this song to the Middle Ages for me.

This song is known as one of the earliest love poems in the English language. The subject of the song is a beautiful woman who flits around like a bird in a tree. But the language is tinged with questions of transformation and death.

I’m only now making the connection between singer Liz Fraser’s beautiful, eerie, twisting melodies and the ornamented melodies of the medieval church. The alien lyrics of the Cocteau Twins remind me of the language of the Middle English poems I’ve met in my English studies – familiar, indecipherable.

Impossible to translate in an exam setting.

The jaunty, driving harpsichord at the heart of the song will make you feel like you’re running through the corridors of a vast castle, face lit by only a candle.

Something magical is definitely afoot.

When listening, I like to erase the mental image of a half-joking-half-serious Morrissey feigning persecution and bemoaning the consequences of his offensive ‘bigmouth’. Instead, I vest myself with the power of rebel girl Joan. Divine messages! War in the body of a girl! On the bus with my wired earphones, I am her! Maybe I’m just as bad as him…

It’s a little profane, ‘Might I have her at my will,’ the speaker sings of their love, but revering too, ‘she may save me from my sorrow’. Read Carol Rumens’s analysis in the Guardian’s poem of the week for more insight on its endless complexity.

I initially picked this song because it features yet another harpsichord. Which is more of a baroque instrument than anything. Quick google and… baroque is not medieval. Whoops!

24 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Film & TV Meet the woman behind the new Doctor Who companion D

octor Who season two has blasted off, and fans are already buzzing. Ncuti Gatwa rockets back into the TARDIS and his new companion, Belinda Chandra, is introduced. Played by Varada Sethu, who you might remember as Mundy Flynn from last season’s episode ‘Boom’ - is hopping aboard as the new companion.

The first episode wastes no time, flinging viewers into a sudden, intergalactic ride that’s every bit as unpredictable as it is exciting.

I sat down with Varada to discuss her acting journey and early creative roots and it was clear why she’s so magnetic on screen. There’s an unmistakable spark to her with a natural charisma when speaking about her craft, making the conversation both enlightening and enjoyable. Varada’s artistic passion took root early. Growing up in Kerala, South India, until she was six, she was surrounded by a culture that regards the arts highly. ‘It’s very much a part of Indian culture,’ she recalls, reminiscing on the admiration for the Malayalam movie industry and its actors. Despite this reverence, she pointed out that pursuing the arts professionally is often viewed with skepticism within the community.

‘I think as a culture, we’re really invested in the arts but we’re not always supportive of our kids doing it as a career.’ Even while attending veterinary school at the

University of Bristol, she always knew acting was her calling. ‘The passion and commitment come from within,’ she explained. ‘My advice would be to work really, really hard on yourself and believe in yourself, because no one else can do that for you. No one else.’

One of our writers, Aditi Hrisheekesh, was lucky enough to bag an interview with actress Varada Sethu, who stars as the new Doctor Who companion, Belinda Chandra. Read on to find out what it was like working with Ncuti Gatwa and the differences Aditi Hrisheekesh, between filming on Doctor Who versus Star Wars.

Co-Deputy Music Editor

Indian classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam also influenced her early relationship with performance. ‘It’s such an expressive art form that inherently goes hand in hand with acting,’ she noted. Learning to convey emotion through dance built her confidence and taught her how to connect with an audience - she speaks of the various roles that one must embody in a Bharatanatyam performance, nurturing a range of expressions and skills that prove invaluable on screen.

When asked about her favourite role, Varada admits it’s a toss-up between Belinda Chandra in Doctor Who and Cinta Kaz in Andor. Belinda’s assertiveness and clear boundaries helped Varada cultivate similar strengths in her everyday life - acting, in a way, can build a kind of ‘muscle memory’ for life’s challenges, without exposing you to any real-world consequences, she noted.

Varada learned she’d landed the part of Belinda only a couple of weeks before shooting, at ‘breakneck speed’ - much like Belinda’s own whirlwind entry into a tumultuous world of robots and space-

time anomalies. ‘I hadn’t processed it in that moment,’ she said, reminiscing on the moment she found out. Having played Mundy Flynn in the previous season’s episode ‘Boom’, the excitement she had on set then was undeniable. ‘I had such an amazing time on set and walking away was quite hard,’ she said, not expecting to come back.

On the sci-fi front, the sets of both Andor and Doctor Who share one clear advantage: the 'talking to a tennis ball and green screen thing’ was minimal on both. Varada praised the ‘attention to detail’ on each set and how you can feel ‘the love and energy that goes into the job’ when the set is right in front of you. The environments for both sets felt undeniably livedin for Varada, especially on Andor which felt like a proper town. The tangible props for Doctor Who, like the ten-foot-tall robots, were truly there, making it easier for her to ground herself in her character’s reality, no matter how fantastical her surroundings may be.

Furthermore, Varada’s strong rapport with co-star Ncuti Gatwa stood out, ‘I absolutely love him.’ She

Photos courtesy of: IMDb

Editor’s Choice:

acknowledged how the energy he brought to the set was extremely ‘dynamic and you just want to match it’, which created what she called ‘a beautiful, kind of family setting’.

This sort of camaraderie, she noted, could ultimately transform even the most challenging days on set.

part of her being is angry and hurt.’

Belinda’s background, by contrast, was closer to Varada’s own, she noted, and her prep had to happen on the fly - she was literally ‘thrown into the deep end’ (no time for a months-long deep-dive).

We also spoke about how she prepared differently for each role. Getting ready for the role of Cinta Kaz in Andor wasn’t something Varada stepped into lightly. She spent months preparing for Cinta, ‘diving into her psyche, into the kind of trauma that she endures.’ She found herself poring over material that stretched her understanding of a revolutionary struggle - one book in particular, Shoot the Women First by Eileen McDonald, came as a real turning point. ‘It’s incredible.

It’s a collection of interviews with women who are in revolutionary movements all around the world.’

Tonally, of course, Andor is ‘dark and gritty’ and geared towards adults, whereas Doctor Who leans more family-friendly. For Varada, acting is also rooted in an honest fascination with human psychology. ‘When you’re playing a different personality, you can pick up on the good traits’. Acting, as Varada sees it, can influence the self, being able to absorb the depth and intricacies of each character. By embodying the experiences of others, one can gain a ‘deeper understanding of the human condition’ - it is a unique way of gauging the human experience where empathy is of the utmost importance.

She continues, ‘There’s a throwa way line about it - but what Cinta experiences is essentially genocide. It is a very different experience playing a character who is traumatised, who I also had a lot of time to do research for. Every

‘I love the spirit of Belinda,' Varada concluded. 'I love when she kind of became her own person and less like me. She’s such a special person that I got to embody for a while and I learned a lot from her. I hope to carry her with me.’

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

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Editor .............Max Bradley-Cole Deputy Editor ...............Meadow Wattret Deputy Editor .................Chien Wen Siow Subeditor .........Marianne Chatburn Subeditor .................Nadiya Jackson

Review: Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other A review of an amazing documentarty about the relationship between two larger than life artists.

Max Bradley-Cole Film & TV Editor

Maggie Barret is the wife of renowned photographer Joel Meyerowitz. He’s published 53 books, received the Guggenheim fellowship twice, and has had his worked displayed internationally in esteemed galleries such as MoMA and the Tate Modern. I think it’s safe to say that Joel is prolific, yet throughout this documentary, it becomes clear that his wife is too. An artist in her

own right, Maggie has published five novels, a play, and a collection of short stories, she draws, plays the piano (beautifully might I add), and is in every aspect of her life, an artist.

Yet despite her unrelenting creativity and her equally expansive oeuvre, she has remained in the shadow of Joel’s camera throughout their time together. That is, until now.

Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other, a title that struck me like a slap in the face when I first read it, is a documentary by first time directors Jacob Perlmutter and Manon Ouimet. It follows the relationship between (can you guess?) Maggie Barret and Joel Meyerowitz as they navigate love, ageing, mortality, creativity, and even something as simple as their shared space. I had no idea what the film was about prior to watching, as I love to go into things with no preconceptions, and I can say that I was swiftly blown away.

The film opens with a whistle-stop tour of their lives communicated via picture and voiceover. The sequence creates this sort of sentimental launching pad from which the film kicks off and you’re immediately endeared to the couple both thanks to Maggie’s quippy wit (or witty quips) and Joel’s calm assurance. This is followed by a succession of gorgeous vignettes that converge to create a really lucid portrait of their life in rural Tus-

Photos courtesy of: IMDb

cany. One of these initial moments that stood out to me was this scene of Maggie and Joel together in the bath. It’s just a simple, static, shot, with the couple situated to the left, Maggie’s back is to the camera as the couple share a kiss. It’s so beautiful and so tender and all I could think is how rarely we are presented with a love between two elderly people that is this raw and affectionate. This is something so important and it permeates the whole film.

I have found in life that there is this poisonous, pervasive belief, especially amongst young people, that once you reach a certain age your life is over, and it seems that number is ever dwindling. To offset the dread caused by this you must have loved, achieved, and triumphed all before the age of 50, 30, 25, 21 and

Watershed Reviews: A Highlights Reel

Photo courtesy of: La Cocina Film

Photo courtesy of: Break Out Pictures

Review by Bethany Banks

Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story

Amid a trend of anxiety-inducing kitchen dramas like The Bear and Boiling Point, La Cocina’s band of chefs are motivated not by achieving the perfect dish, but by the pursuit of their dreams. That, and freedom from a grinding system that renders them cogs in a chaotic machine.

Courtesy of Watershed I was kindly invited to watch Blue Road, a documentary by Sinéad O’Shea about Irish Author Edna O'Brien. After the credits rolled, I left the screening with one word in my mind: formidable. Edna O’Brien was a truly formidable woman.

La Cocina

Review by Maia Rizzolo Black-

so on. Yet Maggie and Joel’s life is the direct antithesis of this. They are constantly reinventing themselves, learning, doing, being, more and more and more. It was just so life affirming and reassuring that even at their respective ages they still had more that they wanted to do and more that they were doing.

The film, however, is not all sunshine and rainbows, Maggie and Joel’s relationship, like any, is comprised of light and dark. Maggie is intermittently at odds with Joel and his success, often feeling like an accessory to him and his career. Although Joel is acutely aware of this, taking great care to introduce her immediately to any approaching fan.

For the full article go to: epigram.org.uk

To read the full reviews go to epigram.org.uk

Photo courtesy of: IMDb

Photo courtesy of: IMDb

Julie Keeps Quiet

One to One: John & Yoko

Review by Juniper Gardner

Review by Bethany Banks

What is the price of silence? Leonardo Van Dijl seeks to answer this question in his directorial debut Julie Keeps Quiet.

In an exclusive tennis academy, tennis prodigy Julie faces a difficult choice when her tennis coach is suspended following the death of a past student.

This documentary captures Ono and Lennon as they immerse themselves fully into New York’s surroundings, culture, and turbulent political landscape – the couple find themselves fighting for activism against a backdrop of Nixon’s government and the Vietnam War.

28 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

SciTech Your 2024/25 SciTech Wrapped is here! we are extremely grateful for.

SciTech Subeditor Ellie Barnes takes a look back at all of SciTech's amazing achievements this year.

Ellie Barnes, SciTech Subeditor

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hat an incredible year for the SciTech section! Corin, Miles, James, and I congratulate you all and want to express our sincerest gratitude for writing such amazing articles and coming up with the most intriguing ideas. To acknowledge and praise the amazing scientists that have worked with us this year I have composed a SciTech Wrapped!

Furthermore, SciTech deputy editors James Lewis and Miles Gilroy collaborated with Robogals for the second part of our International Women’s Day series, where they discussed the overrepresentation of men in the STEM workforce and how Robogals are breaking boundaries. They are providing more female role models that encourage women to feel comfortable and seen when expressing their interest in the field.

innovations, to the history and chemistry of bread, to Skyrim. I have thoroughly enjoyed editing his articles or just seeing his name pop up in the SciTech email.

Alice Guskov, another quad-contributor, has impressed us all this year with her fascinating articles about the mini-moon that joined us in late 2024, the sustainability of Christmas, the benefits of learning to code, and now the

experiments that were used to understand the neurobiology of stress, creating a beautifully fused science and student news article. I think merging the topics of sections to create something more diverse and current will only be beneficial for us to improve the section.

Harry Mayes wrote an astonishing four articles for us this year.

His work ranged from AI

Illustrations by Corin Hadley & Julia Mullins

The Student Publication Association National Conference 2025 took place on the 5th of April in Exeter where, I am proud to announce, we won ‘Best Science Publication’!

This means we are

Hannah Stainbank wrote on the University of Bristol’s Student's Union ending all forced swim

This year we have published 38 articles on the Epigram website (at the time of writing), compared to the equally impressive 30 last year. The aim has been to keep science fun and interesting, encouraging people to see that science doesn’t have to be tedious and full of statistics - it can be relevant and exciting!

This year we were able to collaborate with the Intersectional Feminist Society. Jenine Alathari, a second year biochemistry student, discussed with Sonia Jordan, Tess Rayner, and our very own SciTech editor Corin Hadley about the heavy metals that were found in sanitary products. Being able to relate science to real, topical issues is something that has been so important for us and sharing that with other societies is a privilege

helped answer any questions or queries about writing for us. It was lovely to put faces to names and get to meet some of the many talented writers in our section. This is something that we all agree would be beneficial to continue next year to create a more social and interactive aspect to the section.

officially the best student lead science publication (or section) across the whole of the UK. Obviously this couldn’t have been done without our incredible writers and my remarkable SciTech editors. I am incredibly proud and honoured to have worked alongside such astonishing people who are interested and care so deeply about the world.

Not only did we win ‘Best Science Publication’ but Epigram won ‘Best Publication’ overall! There is something so special within this newspaper and the environment it fosters and it is truly beautiful to see that recognised at a higher level. I am grateful to be a part of it and hope that you all feel the same.

If you would like to write for our award winning SciTech section over the summer or next year you can join the whatsapp group, using the QR code in the top right corner, and take commissions we put out, or pitch us an idea through our email: scitech.epigram@gmail.com !

life and death of the Gaia space observatory. Alice’s breadth of style has kept us glued to the pages all throughout the year.

Cali Stott has kept us up to date on all things AI and computing this year. Her articles about the new Isambard 3 supercomputer at the University of Bristol and how AI is affecting banking have been informative and extremely engaging. Cali’s ability to explain complex scientific ideas in a digestible way has been second to none.

One particularly impressive aspect we have added this year is the writing workshops, these happened across the whole of Epigram and Photo courtesy of: Robogals

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

Illustrations by Alice Guskov

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Editor ............ Corin Hadley Deputy Editor .............. Miles Gilroy Deputy Editor .............. James Lewis Subeditor .............. Ellie Barnes Researcher .......Harrison Phillips

Celebrating Gaia’s decade of achievements Alice Guskov Second Year, Astrophysics

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aia, which stands for Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics, has nothing to do with the Greek goddess of the same name. This Gaia is a European space observatory tasked with creating the largest and most precise 3D map of our galaxy.

Launched on December 19 2013, it has two identical telescopes with a common focal plane featuring three science instruments to determine the properties of nearly two billion objects.

The astrometric instrument uses parallax to determine the distance of an object as well as its proper motion to find its velocity. The radial velocity spectrometer determines an object’s Doppler shift, and the photometric instrument finds stellar characteristics such as temperature, mass and chemical composition.

After launching, Gaia entered its operational orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, where the orbital motion is in equilibrium with the gravitational forces, allowing it to hover. L2 is a very popular destination for observational spacecraft because it is behind the Earth, and therefore, observations are not affected by the Earth’s shadow, which can distort images. However, Gaia did not start taking obser vations a s soon as it reached

L2. It required f o u r months of calibration and officially started taking measurements on 25 July 2014 - beginning its 11-year mission.

Spinning once every six hours, Gaia sends up to 100 gigabytes of data

to Earth daily and measures each star an average of 70 times over five years. As you can imagine, this is a lot of data, requiring robust data-handling software. In fact, the University of Bristol’s Astrophysics Group received a grant in 2013 from the UK Space Agency to further develop data-handling software to access the data from the Gaia mission. This software was authored

by Dr Mark Taylor, a research fellow and local contributor to the Gaia mission in the School of Physics, who is ‘proud to be contributing to the hundreds of scientists on the Gaia project and [looks] forward to discoveries about the way the Galaxy formed and the properties of the stars that live within it.’

So far, there have been three data releases to the public, with a fourth estimated in 2026 and a final legacy catalogue in 2030. The first data release in 2016 revealed the positions and apparent brightness for 1.1 billion objects. The second release in 2018 expanded upon this data and provided evidence for a past collision with another galaxy, causing the Milky Way’s disc to be curved rather than flat. The third

data release in 2022 contained data for over 1.8 billion stars and attempted to patch some of the gaps in previous data. As a result, it identified new star clusters, exoplanets, black holes, quasars and galaxies! I may be biased as an Astrophysics student, but that is incredible. And there is another data release still to come, which will further reveal the intricacies of the universe and continue to revolutionise astronomy.

The Gaia mission was originally meant to last five years, using about a dozen grams of cold gas daily to function. It has greatly exceeded this time frame and is running low

on fuel. As a result, it was sent into a ‘retirement orbit’ after switching off its systems around the sun on 27 March 2025. It has been a very emotional moment for everyone who has worked on the mission for the past several years, with the Gaia Mission Manager Uwe Lammers stating, ‘we will never forget Gaia, and Gaia will never forget us.’

Although Gaia will no longer be taking new measurements, this is just the beginning of Gaia’s impact on astrophysics. The huge amount of data it has collected will guide astrophysics for many years to come and possibly lead to many more ground-breaking discoveries.

Photo courtesy of: European Space Agency

Alice Guskov recounts the life and achievements of the European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory

SciTech wins best science section at SPA awards

By Miles Gilroy SciTech Deputy Editor

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n the 5th of April 2025, Epigram’s SciTech section was officially recognised as the best science publication or section by the Student Publication Association (SPA).

I speak for the whole of the SciTech editorial team when I say that this award means the absolute world. We have put in countless hours of work behind the scenes to grow this section into what it is today and, while it’s not all about awards, it is nice to be recognised on a national scale.

That being said, this award is as much yours as it is ours. Without

your readership and incredible articles, this section wouldn’t exist and we are eternally grateful for all you have done this year.

Here’s what Andy Extance and Emma Hattersley from the Association of British Science Writers had to say about our section:

unhealthy housing and discussion of local scientific issues showed a great understanding of their audience. They also bravely tackled the issue of animal testing in their piece on how their university banned experiments that force mice to swim.’

Editor's Note: Here it is. The end of the road. And what a journey it's been.

Whether you've been an avid contributor or just a loyal reader this year, Corin, James, Ellie, and myself would like to thank you sincerely for joining us.

‘After the section was nearly scrapped at the end of the last academic year, the hard work of the editorial team has produced an impressively engaging section.

Innovations such as the introduction of the role of ‘head researcher’ and an idea-generation workshop helped create compelling, accurate copy. The section’s focus on working with the design team, contributions to the ‘Break The Mould’ campaign against

It has been hard work, but fuck me was it fun.

I'm sure I also speak for the other three when I say this year has been more successful than I could have ever imagined and that is entirely down to you guys. Thank you for reading our silly little section.

Have a great Summer - Miles :) Photo courtesy of: Harriett Sanderson

30 EPIGRAM 01.06.25

Sport Coach's diaries: Managing UBWFC 4's

Faniki Deche, Sport Editor

Editor's Choice:

Since this is the last print of my tenure as Sports Editor this is a love letter to my time coaching both the Men's fifth and sixth football team as well as the Women's fourth team. I think it is a unique position to be in that is not often spoken about as I got to experience and adapt to both sides of the game. Here are my thoughts and observations for anyone interested in coaching.

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rowing up as a football fan in Kenya, the women’s game carried this Wild West mystique to it. Apart from the World Cup and the Olympics, it was never really on television which meant those occasions carried an excitement akin to when the FA Cup Final was the only time you could watch Sir Stanley Matthews (or Marta in this case) on TV. It was this bubbling feeling of wanting to know more about this game that motivated me to take up the role as coach of my University Women’s Fourth Team. As a student who also plays for my University Men’s Team and coached their fifth and sixth team last year, these are my experiences entering women’s football. this “chicken-behaviour” to be important for a player’s individual development, but I found out within this space there’s a lot of authority placed on the coach as the perceived holder of wisdom.

The start of men’s training sessions are a bit like herding chicken.

Whenever I set up, balls are already flying around. Some are doing rondos, a couple are exchanging long passes and others are taking shots.

The chickens are everywhere unI believe this comes from their til you call them with your set up surprisingly short “careers” comand they come dribpared with my male bling back. How‘Within this space there’s a teammates. Even in ever, the women lot of authority placed on the fifth and sixth are a bit more like men’s teams, many herding sheep. I’m the coach as the perceived were among the setting up but the best in school and holder of wisdom.’ balls aren’t flying. I have been playturn around and I see them waiting ing since childhood. Meanwhile, for me to finish before stepping in. a good number of the girls only started playing seriously post-2020 Eventually I ask why, and they with the Lionesses winning the Eurespond with “I didn’t know we ros being a key factor meaning the could do that” and “that would guys have more self-confidence in be disrespectful.” Honestly, I find coaching themselves. As a result,

my first role was to be a confidence builder for the girls to trust in themselves to take initiative without solely relying on my knowledge.

so there’s still lots to improve.

Photos courtesy of: UBAFC & UBWFC

diverse coaching really is. Only half the Women's Super League Tactically, it’s clear that football (WSL) managers are women and was coded by and for men. From it’s worse at this level. Basically, the dimensions of the pitch, goals our opponents either had a white My biggest struggle about coaching and balls, the women’s game has man in charge or none at all with women is communication. Personhad to adapt and so do my tactheir captain taking ally whenever I give instructions tics. Take goal kicks. to individual players, I would refYou cannot default to ‘It’s the same sport responsibility. One did have a female among erence current professionals that going long at this level match their playstyles. However, because girls who can but a different game.’ their coaching staff and I greeted her first asover 97% of the players that I know kick that far come at a suming she was the gaffer but she in depth are men, which worked premium. Good news is that presswas the assistant to another white well when coaching guys but feels ing becomes key and an easy way man. As a man coaching women disingenuous in this context beto create chances. Bad news is, esI do begin to question whether cause it’s the same sport but a differpecially at the beginning when I “I am the problem.” The original ent game. The pace and physicality had to build confidence among the job description stated they preis different so telling them to watch group, buildup becomes a problem. ferred a woman but I applied and Iniesta is less helpful than telling fortunately landed the role which them to analyse Putellas’ game.

The players don’t trust themselves I love but I cannot help but wonto play through presses and going der whether I am part of the glass Moreover, most of the girls extenlong is a problem. So you have to ceiling blocking female coaches. sively follow the women’s game. I compromise and we settled on remember one time the girls were playing over the press. With teams Coaching is regularly framed as patalking about how Arsenal lost to pressing high, they leave gaps beternalistic with the greats seen as Real Madrid in the Champions tween their defensive and midfield father figures but I remember one League and I was like “Real need lines where one of our attackers training session where one of my to beat Athletico in the second leg could drop in. You lure them in players was visibly underperformto play Arsenal?” but they meant with the keeper playing it short to ing. I asked if anything was wrong the Women’s UCL the centre back who, so you’ve got to un‘Our opponents either with a moving ball, and she confessed that she was on her period but kept quiet and derstand their game doesn’t have to kick had a white man in went on with it. In all fairness, why if you want to teach far and with lift can charge or none at all.’ bypass the press and would she tell me? I would never them how to play. get to experience that but football It honestly feels like find our attacker bemoves on devoid of any empalearning a new language, because tween the lines. A couple of successthy towards female experiences. you need to expose yourself to it ful plays and the opposition drops In that regard, coaching women by watching it consistently and deeper creating more space for the requires you to be maternalistic. you need to start thinking womcentre backs to play thus building en’s football in order to speak it. their confidence game by game.

Can I become a mum? Should I and is it even possible? Funnily I made personal files for each playSticking to how male dominatenough, on Mother’s Day, after our er stating their roles, strengths ed this game is, I was very naïve penultimate training session of and weaknesses and I tried to on who my opposition coaches the year, the squad gifted me flowcompare their profile with curwould be and I think it’s because ers and a thank you card for the rent female players. I based my of Emma Hayes’ recent rise which season. So maybe in a way, I have. criteria purely off FC25 ratings painted a false narrative on how

31

01.06.25 EPIGRAM

Editor .............Faniki Deche Deputy Editor ...... Adam Mountain Deputy Editor ....... Sean Lawrenson Subeditor .............. Mihai Rosca

n the 5th – 6th April 2025 weekend, the Bristol Bloodhounds went undefeated in eight games to win the British Universities Ice Hockey Association Tier 3 Non-Checking National Tournament.

The 2011-12 season saw the last Bristol team until now – the Bristol Lions – who ceased to exist with the closure of the Bristol Ice Rink in 2012. This team struggled to continue without Student Union funding or support, yet still recorded an impressive 52 registered players across two teams for the final season, according to BUIHA archives.

Over the last year, the Bloodhounds have faced similar struggles – with the Student Union rejecting fund-

Saturday morning saw a 9:03 am faceoff against Nottingham Mavericks F. After being led to Changing Room 5 by kind-hearted members of the Manchester Metros and the Glasgow Stags C (foreshadowing) (cheers Luke Raven), the Bloodhounds changed into their kit, unsure of what to expect for the upcoming four games. #87 Abbott of the Mavericks quickly opened the scoring with a strong shot against Bloodhounds goalie Viikberg the Viking, laced up for his first ever game. However, this was soon followed by two strong goals by alternate captain #97 Kirill “the Thrill” Korchinov and #12 Chris Neville to put Bristol back in the lead. #57 Josh

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Second Year, Geography

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Reflection of Bristol ice hockey's successful performances at the Nationals

ing and grant applications, and a lack of ice time at Planet Ice Bristol. This meant that heading into Nationals, the 9-player roster (the smallest of the tournament) had never all been on the ice together at the same time. In fact, several players had never met the rest of the team until that weekend.

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Bristol Bloodhounds clinch national title

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Foley scored another to close the game with a 3-1 win to Bristol.

Shortly after, the Bloodhounds faced off against UEA Avalanche B. This game saw the first point of the tournament from one of Bristol’s development players, #6 Lance Shi, credited with a secondary assist on Foley’s first goal.

Korchinov scored another for Bristol to win 2-0, with Viikberg facing just one shot this game.

After a few hours to rest, Bristol faced off against Newcastle Wildcats B, a team with some of the best jerseys in the tournament and an intimidating reputation. Luckily, Korchinov opened the scoring just seven seconds into the game, shortly followed by Newcastle receiving a 2-minute slashing penalty. Alas, Bristol must patch their power-play units for next year, as #69 Bird scored a short-handed goal for the Wildcats, tying the game. Korchinov responded with the game-winning goal for a 2-1 win. This was perhaps Bristol’s toughest game of the weekend, with a strong amount of offen

sive pressure from the Wildcats firing up the star Bloodhounds to rip some hard shots.

C, however, this didn’t phase Bristol, winning 2-1.

The first day of the tournament ended with a more relaxed game against Sheffield Bears G: a 1-0 win for Bristol focused on providing the development players with more puck control time and some good shot attempts.

Without enough time to change out of our kits, the final group game followed against Leeds Gryphons D – a joyous team to play! Neville and Korchinov were the goal scorers of this match, closing out the group stage with a final 2-0 win to Bristol.

Sunday looked to be a tough day, with two more group stage games before playoffs. 7:40am saw an early start against Imperial Devils

For the full article, go to: epigram.org.uk

Bristol Run Club: The club overtaking Bristol Run clubs are overtaking the country, with their promises of coffee, community and Strava kudos.

Emma Griffiths Second Year, English Literature

N

possibly think of, from the London based Scrambled Legs bashing out 30kms on a Saturday to the more social groups like Runners and Stunners aimed at inclusivity regardless of body type or speed, there is always an opportunity for people to find new friends with the same love of getting out and about - or let’s be honest, just a particular penchant for baked groups.

owadays, it seems that every- One of these groups that has overone and their aunt has joined run (excuse the pun) Bristol is a run club. The lure of coffee, pas- Bristol Run Club, formed by Lucia tries and the ability to meet new Shiner in September 2023. Having people is a very porecently reached tent one indeed, es10k followers on ‘I made a TikTok’ and it pecially in a generaInstagram, the blew up a bit. We met at tion which is shown group is increas10am and sixty people to be increasingly ingly popular, less interested in the luring people came along.’ traditionally hardout every Thurscore drinking culture of university. day and Sunday with the promise of good company, inclusive paced Run clubs - and the rise of running groups and (obviously) a sweet in general - is something that has treat. However, its popularity was significantly changed the social never something that Lucia banked scene post-lockdown. Catering to on. Run clubs are often sponsored any requirements that you could by sports brands like Runna or

Strava, or led and backed by ‘runfluencers,’ but Bristol Run Club was simply born because 'I just wanted to make friends in Bristol.'

This number has only continued to grow. Bristol Run Club has increased from one group to three differently paced groups, with varying distances. The response has been sensational, with people joining in not just for the actual running, but for the general positive atmosphere and community that BRC so

carefully fosters. The importance of this low-pressure, supportive environment is obvious, as Lucia spoke of 'a girl [on the first ever run] who came up to me afterwards and said “I could only run 1km but I wanted to meet you guys for coffee so I walked the rest,”' something that prompted Lucia to include a designated beginner’s group because 'whether you can run 5km or 30km or 1km, creating somewhere where everyone feels that they can join in regardless of their

running ability is so important.'

The vast array of runners within Bristol Run Club’s flanks, from beginners to those who took part in the annual Bristol 10km and Half Marathon, is also an interesting comment on the place that running occupies in people’s lives nowadays.

For the full article, go to: epigram.org.uk

Photo courtesy of: Bristol Run Club

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01.06.25 EPIGRAM

Curated by James Lewis & Alexandra Hill

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1. Protects a cut when healing (4) 5. Search engine! (5) 6. Taken by surprise (5) 9. Putting on the... cracker (4)

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Photoshop, for example (6) 18 17 19 20 21 4. Gentlemen thief (5) 6. Like a haunted house, maybe (9) 22 8. Promise of a bloom (7) 9. Amateur astronomer (9) 10.

Sounds like Doodles by Megan Hopkins supermarket ACROSS categorisation (4) 15. ______ is ______ (6) 1. Over 600 people have Britain (3) 13. The world's largest 8. 1990 Editor-in-Chief 17. Time waster (7) signed to break it (5) urban forest (6) 21. Nada (5) 3. Ratite native to of Epigram (4) 16. Scent of a Woman 9. Mike Myers' swamp- 22. Post-Triangle meal Oscar winner (6) Australia (3) (13) dwelling persona (5) 4. Who should be held 18. A short adjective (3) 10. Arctic inhabitant (5) accountable 19. The most stable DOWN for dangerous student 11. Nefarious plans (7) element (4) 12. Best publication, 1. Satnav predecessor 20. Shift+CTRL+Z, for living conditions? (8) (4) 5. Like an ASMR creator perhaps (5) most (4) 14.

WILTY? wins 2. Popular start to an (10) NYT game (5) 7. Home of Good Morning entertainment (5)

KILLER SUDOKU by Alice Guskov

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1. Eminem's got so many essays (2) 2. Unfaithful card game (5) 3. Buying furniture? Let's go! (2) 4. Judged by its cover succeeds [5 down] (4) 5. One solar orbit precedes [4 down] (4) 7. Prefix that swings both ways (2) 8. Check the Republic (2)

HOW TO KILLER All columns, rows, and 3x3 boxes are filled exactly like in regular sudoku.

However, every square is part of a cage, indicated by dotted lines.

The squares in this cage must add up to the cage's sum.

No numbers appear more than once in a cage, even in different lines or 3x3 boxes.

Need extra help? Remember the Rule of 45: If each column, row, and 3x3 box must contain the numbers 1-9, then the total sum of these regions must be 45.

SIMPLE SUDOKU by Alice Guskov

REGULAR SUDOKU by Alice Guskov