Before joining the University of Westminster, I was a nervous wreck. Firstly, I had completely changed my mind over what I wanted to study and thus lost my place at my first choice university. This meant that I had to do some intense research to find something else – a place with a convenient location,...
Start of something new
Before I started University, I was scared, nervous and at the same time excited. As an international student, I didn’t know what to expect. Moving to a new country is already terrifying itself but starting a completely new life by myself away from everything I’ve ever known made me consider going back home several times...
Our Journey: First steps into University life
University so far has been quite an extraordinary experience, three weeks in and you have lecturers who not only guide you but listen to you. They try to build a relationship with you to help students achieve their goals. It’s more than just a collection of buildings and classrooms, it is a culturally rich society,...
An evening of Poetry and tales of Rangzen
Last Thursday on October 11th, the Students for Free Tibet Society and the Centre for Study of Democracy in Westminster University invited poet-activist Tenzin Tsundue and Wangden Kyab, a senior researcher of the Tibet Watch Research Team to have a conversation with Professor Dibyesh Anand on human rights, politics, China and Tibet. The floor opens...
The End of the Global?
The End of the Global? is a DEN publication where leading from last year’s conference which was organized by the DEN students at the University of Westminster has all the papers put together in a book. The conference saw students from all across the world got togther to take part at a conference that was...
Democratic Education Network: Magazine
We had a very successful academic year where you enjoyed reading our blogs and writing for us. Inspired by this students at DEN came together to create a DEN Magazine. A project where an editorial team got together to collect articles, editorials, blogs and more from students of the University of Westminster along with all...
Georgia: Heaven on Earth
Recently students of University of Westminster from the Department of Politics and International Relations got a chance to visit the gorgeous city of Tbilisi in Georgia. A group of students along with Dr. Farhang Morady went to visit St. Andrew the First-Called Georgian University of the Patriarchate of Georgia (SANGU) along with Transparency International Georgia...
Georgia in my heart
When our lecturer first told us to talk to each other and we only vaguely knew who he was referring to, I don’t think Lienus or I could have imagined that it would lead to the day when we met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. When we first started discussing the possibility...
Georgia on my mind
“Not the American one.” This is the quantifier required when you tell people in the UK that you are going to Georgia. In fact, many people don’t even know there is a country called Georgia, despite the fact that it is only half the distance from the UK that the state of Georgia, USA is....
Are LGBT rights human rights? A queer perspective.
In this paper, I will argue that the framing of LGBT rights as human rights should be assessed on two different levels. Precisely I will argue that the use of human rights as an instrument to promote LGBT rights has positive effects in leading the fight against gender discrimination at the international level, often pushing...
Global Crisis:Local Voices
Democratic Education Network (DEN) hosted their second international student conference on 11th and 12th May called Global Crisis: Local Voices. The Democratic Education Network is an academic student-led organization of the Department of Politics and International (DPIR). The conference like last year was a two-day long affair packed with stimulating panels, a theatre production and...
Can left-wing populism revive social democracy?
This paper investigates the concept of populism, in particular in relation to the way in which left-wing traditional parties and new actors have (or have not) adapted to modern populist discourses in the light of the popular rejection of traditional institutions and parties. The aim of this paper is to establish whether left-wing populism can...