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The Staff Awards are a great opportunity to show appreciation of the hard work that goes on day to day, here at Warwick!

Read an interview with Student Experience Award winner Justin Greaves, Director of Student Experience and Progression/Senior Teaching Fellow, PAIS

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Read 'Speaking Out' here

PAIS student, Daniel Murphy, has recently launched an online petition to end his former school’s proposed partnership with a school in Qatar.

Qatar has attracted international criticism for its continued human rights abuses, and its exploitation of migrant labour in the construction of its stadiums ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Appearing on the front page of this week's Surrey Advertiser ahead of a BBC local radio interview this coming Saturday, Daniel says that the partnership contradicts many of the school's values:

"The main issue is the school’s willingness to enact a partnership with a country with huge human rights abuses. In particular, the treatment of migrant workers but also the fact that homosexuality remains punishable by death for Muslims and seven years imprisonment for non-Muslims.

The partnership contradicts many of the school'’s values and its ethos of 'caring for and valuing each individual equally'. Openly gay, lesbian and transgender teachers would not be able to apply to work at this school, while it is unlikely that openly gay students from Guildford would be allowed to participate on student exchanges with the school in Qatar."

Daniel will be appearing on BBC Radio Surrey's Breakfast Show this Saturday (9 April) at 7.15am. His petition can be signed here: https://www.change.org/p/rgs-guildford-end-rgs-guildford-s-partnership-with-qatar

PAIS Second Year Undergraduate Mems Ayinla has been interviewed on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire in relation to recent reports of on-campus racism at Warwick.

During her time at the University, Mems has been active in her role as Warwick Anti-Racism Society Exec providing support for students of colour across all departments and organising intellectual activities which address the issues and exclusions that people of colour face more broadly. The collective project led by Mems and the rest of the WAR-SOC team has been an inspiration for other liberation societies across the country.

Mems' interview can be heard around 2:41 on the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03nmsf3

Following the ISA Annual Convention 2016, held on 16-19 March in Atlanta, Georgia, Professor Richard Aldrich, PAIS graduate Dr Zakia Shiraz and PhD candidate Daniela Richterova conducted research at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum.

Set up in 1986, the Carter Library holds millions of documents from the era of Jimmy Carter’s Presidency - including selected documents on the Camp David Accords, the President’s speeches and directives, human rights documents, secret briefs by the country’s intelligence community, oral histories as well as rarities such as the Iran Hostage Diary - a prison journal of a captive held at the American embassy in Tehran. The museum is also a wonderful homage to American domestic politics in the late 1970s.

During the course of their three-day research stay, the Warwick team focused on documents pertinent to the history of the CIA, events related to and triggered by the Columbian civil war, and materials on the alleged Soviet sponsorship of Cold War terrorism. Research at the Ford, Carter and Reagan libraries is being accelerated by computer databases of recently declassified materials linked to printers, which makes even a short research visit very productive. Gems uncovered by the PAIS team included a signals intelligence operation by the US National Security Agency against the British territory of Grenada.

Their research visit was made possible due to support for travel and accommodation from the Politics and International Studies Department.