Other News

Several students and staff members in the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) have raised concerns in relation to the recent news that students previously banned will be allowed to return to campus in September. All students in PAIS were emailed on Friday 1st February by the Head of Department and were assured that PAIS as a department unreservedly condemns hate speech and threats of sexual violence on campus in any form. PAIS is committed to promoting a welcoming and inclusive institutional culture, consistent with the Dignity at Warwick policy that all staff and students at Warwick are obliged to follow. The Department treats the safety and dignity of its students as the utmost priority and will also be liaising with other departments, the students union and our SSLCs to ensure that student concerns are heard and addressed.

PAIS and The Department of Economics were delighted to host our annual Student Question Time debate on Monday 28th January 2019.

Based upon the popular BBC Television show, a panel comprising of students from Economics and PAIS were selected from a pool of applicants to answer students' questions on topics relating to current affairs.

Skilfully chaired by Tatiana Coutto, a Teaching Fellow (European Studies) and Course Director for Politics, International Studies and Modern Languages, the panel which consisted of undergraduate students, Daniel Henein, (Y1 Economics), Shreya Thummar (Y2 EPAIS), Remi Trovo (Y1 PAIS) and Ellen Humphreys (Y3 PAIS) debated current affairs. The event attracted over 150 students who are currently studying a range of disciplines within the Social Sciences Department at the University of Warwick.

There were no easy answers to complex questions about the Brexit deal, the climate change as the greatest threat to humanity, the crisis of young people's emotional and mental health or inequalities in society. But the student panellists talked confidently and with passion about how we should all start taking smaller steps in everyday life to achieve a long term goal. There was also a suggestion that the main political parties should start working collaboratively to avoid a no deal Brexit.

These questions opened up interesting debates with the audience who were also given the opportunity towards the end to ask further questions relating to the topics raised at the event.

Dr. Madeleine Fagan has published a new article in the forthcoming April 2019 issue of Political Geography. Her piece ‘On the Dangers of an Anthropocene Epoch: Geological time, Political time, and Post-Human Politics’ addresses the question: ‘When’ is the Anthropocene and who are its subjects? The article explores the ways in which the Anthropocene's embeddedness in geological accounts of time limits political imagination and the possibility for action. It considers alternative resources found in Indigenous critical theory and critical race studies for reframing the timescales and subjects produced by the Anthropocene. 

The article is available here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1YRwr3Qu6uNhvM

We are delighted that the PAIS Department is a case study in the Warwick Education Strategy, launched today, for our No 1 position in the Russell Group for overall student satisfaction, as reflected in the National Student Survey (NSS).

A huge thank you to all our students and staff who contributed to this achievement. You can read the full case study here: https://warwick.ac.uk/about/strategy/education/detail/case-studies/pais/

The UK Parliament has emerged as a key veto player in the Brexit process. But away from the headlines over Parliament's 'meaningful vote' on the Brexit deal, it has also played an important role in day-to-day scrutiny of the Government through the work of its cross-party committees. In this talk, Joanna Welham, the Clerk of the House of Commons International Trade Select Committee (the Committee's chief civil servant), will be speaking about the role of Select Committees in holding the Government to account - and reflect on the role of expertise in shaping their work.

7 February, 6-7.30pm

Location: Oculus Building, OC0.02

The event is free, but please register at the following link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-role-of-uk-parliament-select-committees-tickets-53722596733