jeremy corbyn
Joe Dunne, BA International Relation The roar audible from Labour Party HQ when Jeremy Corbyn was announced as the party’s 25th leader was typical of the reception with which the news has been greeted at the grass roots of the party across the country. Such a reaction invariably draws
indonesia
Jake Leyland, MSc Globalisation and Development What is the connection between the president of Indonesia and a grindcore band? Jake Leyland explains all. The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, AKA Widodo, or ‘Jokowi’, is a refreshing figure in the political history of Indonesia. He is the first successful presidential candidate from
iraq
Kay Lee, LLB Law What makes the U.S. so sure this time? ISIS: clearly a threat and clearly barbaric, regardless of whether you identify with religion or believe God is as real as Middle Earth. The President has recently sought authorisation to fight the Islamic State on the grounds
critique
Since Fifty Shades of Grey came out on Valentine’s Day, criticism about the content of both the book and its film adaptation have resurged. Many of my Facebook friends started posting about “Boycott Fifty Shades of Grey”, claiming that it promotes domestic violence and gives a wrong lesson as
critique
Zahra Deera, LLB Law For those of you who are unaware of the storyline, 50 Shades of Grey centres around Anastasia, a senior in university, who meets Christian Grey – a young multi-millionaire who enjoys practising BDSM. And as I’m sure you can guess, Anastasia gets caught up in
Europe
Sparsh Pandya, BA South Asian Studies The European political zeitgeist has undoubtedly been gripped by austerity. This is not an illogical phenomenon by any means – since the 2008 financial crisis, harsh austerity measures have been carried out by governments all over Europe. These measures have been facilitated by the ‘Troika’
BDS Working Group SOAS is buzzing with conversation about the academic boycott of Israel referendum, which is to be held on campus from 23-27 February. The referendum will be school-wide and will call on students, academics, and other staff members to vote in favour of boycotting Israeli academic
Kay Lees, LLB Law The BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), calls for international support to help achieve its goals of boycotting Israeli academic institutions and academics in order to chastise Israeli treatment of Palestinians— from human rights violations to the marginalisation of academics and activists. Taking into account the conflicts
Opinion
Harriet Freeman, BSc, Economics Since the effusion of late 20th century consumer technology into our lifestyles, computers, mobiles and the internet have transformed the concept of ‘time’ as we knew it. Rather than lending us more of it however, we seem to be saying ‘why aren’t there more hours
Commonwealth Journalists Association
Kay Lee, LLB (Law) The Impartiality in Journalism event hosted by the Commonwealth Journalists Association made clear that with rise of internet journalism, distinctions must start to be made between evidence-based journalism and the growing sector of “civilian” journalism. Chaired by former BBC radio host Robin Lustig, the panel
MH17
Yun Hin Choi, BA History and Politics The past several weeks have marked the international carnival where we’ve seen the world’s leaders gather for a number of lavish occasions, kicked off by the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China and ended with the G20 meeting in
culture
Miriam Hicklin, BA Arabic and Persian I have recently embarked upon a journey that has necessitated my being fearless in the face of judgement, throwing away my old inhibitions, and falling in love with Taylor Swift’s music. Blank Space is the killer track on the new album 1989 – mocking