Learning Community Newsletter Week 1

Posted on 21 April 2021

All the latest from the department

Hello all and welcome to Week 1 of the Summer Term! I hope that, wherever you are, you are enjoying some weather as nice as it currently is in York. Fingers crossed that this is a sign of what a great term we have ahead.

As always, we have a great line-up of events to keep you entertained and engaged with the vibrant life of our Department. This week I want to make particular mention of the study groups that our Departmental Community Coordinators are organising for every Monday and Thursday this term. These groups are a great way to set goals around writing and revision - so do please read all about them below to find out more.

I hope you all have a fantastic week,

Jeremy Moulton (Learning Community Officer)

Events

Shift in Attitudes Following the Biden-Harris Presidency

Wednesday 21st April 6pm, Zoom

Join PolSoc for this special event featuring Dr. Constantino Dumangane Jr. to discuss the injustices the BAME community faces following the change in US leadership. Zoom link available through PolSoc’s Linktree.

Meet Your Coursemates

Friday 23rd April 7pm, Zoom

PolSoc’s first ‘Meet Your Coursemates’ event was run last term and was a great success. So, with the new term upon us, it’s time for another chance to meet your brilliant coursemates! Come along for a fun, casual chance to socialise with other students in our Politics community. Zoom link will be available through PolSoc’s Linktree.

Study Groups

From our Departmental Community Coordinators:

Weeks 1-7 of summer term, we will be running some group sessions for people to revise!

Every Monday at 10am we will be holding a casual study group using a Pomodoro structure. This means that we will be studying for 25 minutes, followed by a 5 minute chatty break, 4 times. Students can also write down their goals for the week on a padlet, provided during the session, with the aim to hold yourself accountable. Join through Zoom.

Every Thursday at 10am there will be a first-year revision/discussion group. Students can either choose to suggest certain topics to discuss, or we can go over the content in order. This week we can go through the content for weeks 2-5 of Autumn Term. Students will be put into breakout rooms to fill out Jamboards together, recalling the key points for each topic and writing down any questions they may have. You do not need to prepare for this group, and you can have your notes open when filling out the Jamboards and talking about the content - the main aim is for students to revise through discussion and raise any questions they may have in a casual environment. Join through Zoom.

Should you wish to directly contact our DCC team, please do email them at poli-community-coordinator@york.ac.uk.

York Politics Review

The fantastic York Politics Review (YPR) is looking out for new writers!

YPR is the official political journal of our Department and is a subsidiary of our Politics Society, and it provides a great source of analysis of a broad range of political matters with both a domestic and international focus. YPR is a fantastic forum for both new and experienced writers to write on political subjects. Doing so provides an excellent opportunity to improve writing and research skills, as well as bolstering experience for your CV.

If you are interested in writing for YPR, please contact the editorial team at yorkpoliticsreview@gmail.com.

Laidlaw Scholarships

Over the Easter break, the Department received the very exciting news that four of our students had been awarded prestigious Laidlaw Scholarships. The scholarships enable undergraduate students to carry out independent research and to undertake a leadership programme. A big congratulations to the following students and their project supervisors:

Hannah Boyle (supervised by Dr Daniel Keith)
Joshua Chapman (supervised by Dr Pavlos Vasilopoulos)
Josh Rutland (supervised by Dr Indrajit Roy)
Isla Thomson (supervised by Dr Sara de Jong)

You can find out more about Laidlaw Scholarships here.