My 9th DEN Conference Reflection: Where Ideas and People Find Each Other

Attending and presenting at the 9^th DEN conference felt like the closing of a loop I had opened years ago and one of the most meaningful milestones of my academic journey.

I first heard about DEN in 2018, when I was an undergraduate student in Politics and International Relations at Westminster. Farhang Morady was my “Learning in an International Environment’ module leader, and I remember him sharing about DEN, a space where students were contributors to knowledge. At the time, the project was growing and although I wished to be part of it, I was unable to join.

Years later, when I made the decision to return to Westminster to pursue my LLM in international law, joining DEN was evidence. I wanted to be part of something larger than seminars and coursework, something that would challenge me intellectually and push me to grow in ways that a degree alone would not.

For two semesters, I fully committed to that challenge fully. I attended weekly meetings, read widely, edited contributions from fellow members and wrote my own blogs and articles. It was demanding work that required good time management, rigour and resilience. But with perseverance, I was able to publish my own article ‘Educating for Peace, sustainable development and civilian protection’ in the 9^th DEN book. Seeing my name in print alongside research I genuinely believed in was a quiet but meaningful moment.

The Conference was the cherry on top. More than a formal presentation, it was an opportunity to share that work with a live audience and to learn in return. The DEN Conference brought together students from across the world, each carrying distinct perspectives shaped by different contexts, disciplines and lived experiences. The conversations unfolded in presentations and in the questions that followed, in the corridors, and went far beyond what any seminar could replicates. There was something about the shared investment in ideas that made the exchanges meaningful.

Standing up to present my research and perspective in front of an engaged, curious and supportive audience was rewarding. I put my public speaking skills to real use, build up my confidence and lived the present moment. The diversity of the room fostered valuable conversations and speaking with peers from London as well as from entirely different cultural and intellectual backgrounds reminded me why global conversations on Peace, rights and development matter and why they need as many voices as possible.

The Annual DEN Conference is the reward at the end of a long road: years of reading, research, writing, debating and becoming a more rigorous thinker. But it is also the place where students’ work might inspire others, where connections are made that outlast the event itself and where the people who genuinely care about ideas find each other.

Ariadna Rita Lemos De Oliveira