By Abdullahi Mahi I’ve watched young people across Europe, mostly my own generation, Gen Z, take to the streets, and I understand why. They are protesting against rising living costs and poor school conditions. I believe protests work when they have two things: a human face and a clear demand. Looking at Italy, France and...
By Emre Alex Aslan I was watching a TikTok video, a person doing a funny skit, when halfway through he pulled out his phone, opened Rainbet (a gambling app), bet $200, and slipped the phone back into his pocket. He had doubled his money in a few seconds. When did gambling become this easy? And...
By Najia Benhamza During the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony, the Algerian national team were seen throwing roses into the River Seine. And every year, around 17 October, roses are thrown into the Seine once again. Both gestures are acts of remembrance for the 1961 massacre of Algerians in France, many of whom were murdered and...
Amira Ahmed This is the first of four blogs I am writing for my module, Democratic Engagement in an International Context, at the University of Westminster. The module asks us to find a problem in our own community and follow it across the whole year: what the problem is, why it exists, how to...
Huray Demirci This is the first of four blogs I am writing for my module, Democratic Engagement in an International Context, at the University of Westminster. The module asks us to find a problem in our own community and follow it across the whole year: what the problem is, why it exists, how to investigate...
By Fatima Mamadu Five years ago, I found myself in an unfamiliar environment: an Islamic school where Arabic was taught. Learning Arabic was my main reason for attending, but the experience became far more than an opportunity to learn a language. It challenged everything I thought I understood about education, womanhood, culture, and the choices...
By Anaiya Tyson-Cox Growing up in the British school system, I often found it difficult to see history as something that directly affected me. History could feel distant, disconnected from my own experiences and identity. It was often through media, particularly music and film, that I found a more personal connection to the past. For...
Ten years in, the founder of the Democratic Education Network on the Iranian Azerbaijan childhood that shaped his teaching, the 2016 conversation that became DEN, and the daily practice of a room where students set the terms Farhang Morady, Associate Professor in International Development, School of Social Sciences; Founder and Director of the Democratic Education...
A WIUT Research Assistant and LLM International Commercial Law student on winning the SDG Course competition, presenting a Silk Road digital hub project at the DEN London conference in May 2026, and the friendships that now connect Westminster and Tashkent Sarvarbek Ramatov, Research Assistant and LLM International Commercial Law student, Westminster International University in Tashkent...
In conversation with Professor Horacio Gago Prialé, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru Interview by Negena Mahmoud (BA Politics and International Relations) and Ariadna Rita Lemos De Oliveira (LLM International Law) Director of the Democratic Education Network University of Westminster | October 2026 [Photograph] Pictured: Professor Peter Bonfield, Vice-Chancellor; Associate Professor Farhang Morady, Director of the...
A reflection on the SOC-ENVI Kasetsart International Summer School 2026. By Kong Yilin (‘Elaine’) · Peking University, Beijing, China. The SOC-ENVI International Summer School 2026 was hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Kasetsart University, Bangkok, in partnership with the Democratic Education Network at the University of Westminster, London. It ran for a fortnight...
By Liam Pender As we pass through the first quarter of the 21st century, we have seen monumental changes in society in response to threats of a global, domestic, climate, economic and military nature. There has been war in Europe on a scale not seen since the Second World War. Multiple conflicts in the Middle...