It’s a been bit of a quiet and somewhat stressful week this week, everyone is starting to buckle down as the end of term approaches. It’s been a mainly research-based week for me this week, finding out as much as possible to make my essay the best it can be. I have managed to finish my International Business essay about risks faced by companies who operate in more countries around the world, so that’s a big relief.

 

To chill out, my housemates and I took some trips to the cinema to see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Bohemian Rhapsody. It was a great stress-reliever for us all and with it being only 10 minutes on the bus and tickets only £5, it’s a super easy and affordable way to enjoy yourself with your friends.

 

For Politics Society also, it’s been a great week. Last week, we had Dr. Richard Johnson deliver a lecture on racial polarisation partisanship in US politics. This is about the differences in voting between white and minority voters in their decision to vote Democrat or Republican. It was a fascinating lecture that was greatly enjoyed by the members who attended. Events such as these are some of my favourites as it allows our members to learn about areas of politics that they may not be able to fit into their degree scheme. We also hosted a pub quiz on Wednesday 21st November, which was a great break from work for everyone!

 

Hope you are all doing brilliantly and remember to take some time out for yourselves. See you next time,

 

Orla

 

Hi friends,

Welcome back to my blog, I hope everyone is doing well.

As I promised, I’m back to tell you how my few days at home went, and catch you up on what has been happening in my life for the past two weeks. It sure is crazy how time flies here, it’s already been a week since getting back from my trip at home and I have lots to share with you.

I went home from the 8th-10th November, a short whistle-stop and I was back to Lancaster again. Going home really helped break up the term for me, particularly because it forced me to focus on something other than my degree for a short moment, (if you aren’t going to count the reading in between places, like on the train and on the plane.) Sometimes uni work can feel all consuming – so if you are like me and struggle to put it aside, short breaks like this are important to your wellbeing since they allow you to step back and frame yourself in the larger perspective.

If like me you won’t be living near home, this can be just as well achieved by scheduling yourself in for some down-time: time in which you put the books away and let your mind wander or focus on something completely different. For me, this is going to gigs (I am a big fan of hip-hop, so I often travel to Manchester or Preston for events), spending time with friends (usually food is involved), drawing, cooking and other creative outlets. Last night, for example, I went to Herbarium (a vegan cafe/restaurant) where mutual friends were hosting an art exhibition/ hip-hop DJ/ live music event. If you are a creative person, it’s incredible how much local support there is for the arts, whether this be music, dance, drawing/painting; you name it. I think this is what gives Lancaster its unmatchable community feel.

I can’t stress how important these things are to avoid burnout, and although I have learned much over the past three years about myself, I think this might be the most pertinent.

Back to it – home. I had a fantastic time at home, it was so lovely to spend time with some of my friends since I don’t get to see them much other than in the holidays living so far away. It was awesome to be with my mum for those few days, she spoiled me rotten – we had two amazing lunches by the beach (hopefully you can see the pictures attached below) and dinner out one night too. We ate all sorts of naughty things like crisps… chips… and even chocolate brownie with ice cream.

                                        My Lunchtime view at home in Jersey. 

Even more than this, I got the pleasure of delivering a speech about the International Baccalaureate to 100+ people (potential IB students, and their parents) at my old high school. I have no idea why, but that was the first time I did not feel nervous whatsoever public speaking. I didn’t stumble over my words, I didn’t even get dry mouth! It couldn’t have gone smoother: I even got lots of laughs and even some tears from a teacher’s partner; a truly humbling experience. I think perhaps I wasn’t nervous because I was confident in my message and felt it worthy of being delivered.

And that was home – all went smoothly, even the travel, and before I knew it, I was back in Lancaster.

This week I have been focusing mostly on my dissertation, as I have been given another deadline of 2000 words. I am currently at about 4000, but it still isn’t saying much or going where I want it to, but I think this will come with more reading. I am definitely an ideas person: I always have too many. But this just means that in cutting down and editing I will have more material to choose between (hopefully).

In Philosophy of Work, I’ve decided on an area of study for my 5000 word mini dissertation – which will focus on the good life (within an Aristotelean framework) and the way in which the capitalist job market has de-skilled the labor force at the detriment of the good life. For my other mini-dissertation I am still not sure what my essay will focus on – perhaps the non-identity problem in Parfit’s Reasons and Persons. For anyone who is curious, Parfit thinks that personal identity is largely misunderstood: all that really matters is what he calls Relation R – psychological connectedness/ and or continuity with the right kind of cause. He goes as far as saying that despite our natural inclination to believe that if a replica of ourselves was created on Mars, (but we are told after her replication that we on earth will die), we should regard this as good as ordinary survival – since all that matters is not the continuity of our body, but that some psychological connectedness/continuity holds. On the account of personal identity, however, (the account we instinctively believe), if my replica survives but I die, this is just as bad as normal death. By using thought experiments such as this, Parfit tries to convince us that our natural beliefs such as the importance of personal identity are simply wrong.

I don’t expect you to understand this – this has taken six weeks of toil for me as a third year to come to grips with! I just thought I’d whet your appetite all you moral philosophers out there.

Onwards and upwards with week 7,

Talk to you soon.

Ellie

 

Hi Everybody!

My name is Kenneth, and I am this year’s mentor for those of you applying to study Religious Studies & EPR here at Lancaster

So, I thought it was about time I introduced myself, and said a little bit about this blog.

I’m currently a Master’s Student, reading for a degree in Religion and Conflict. I also studied at Lancaster for my undergraduate degree, which was in International Relations and Religious Diversity. So, I’ve been here a while…

This year I will be mentoring any RS students starting their degree here in Sept 2019. So, keep an eye on this blog. Every week or so I will be posting a short post about what it is like to be an undergraduate student in the PPR department like, what you might want to bring with you, what a lecture is, and what is Fresher’s Week like!

I would also like to introduce our mascot, Lumpy! 

As you can probably tell from his name, Lumpy is a Heffalump teddy…

This year he will be following me around, helping me document what university life is like. So, keep an eye out for him around social media and open days, he is rather mischievous! He mostly hangs out on my twitter (@kenarchy97) but will also feature on this blog and our Instagram account which will be coming soon! 

So yeah, that is us. I am really looking forward to getting to know you all and to help you prepare for coming to Lancaster!! Next week, I’ll be writing a short blog about what my first week at Lancaster university was like.

Best wishes!!

Kenneth and Lumpy

 

Hey guys!

 

After the first few weeks in, it is now time to confront the deadlines approaching. Usually, in the PPR department each module asks for an essay at the end of the term concerning a question related to the course’s topics. For example, in my Understanding External Intervention in Violent Conflicts module, I was thinking of writing my essay on the impact of the War on Terror on the AfPak (Afghanistan and Pakistan) region. In some modules, like China in the Modern World, you also have to make a presentation for your seminar tutor and classmates, but doing an essay is more common.

My Economics modules are very similar, I’ve been lucky not to have any exams this term: for my Applied Economics module I did a presentation on a paper that explored the incidence of low wages in various European countries, and I was thinking of doing my essay on the effects that inequality of education has on developing countries; for my Monetary Macroeconomics module I will do a presentation concerning the role of monetary institutions in tackling wage inflation, and my essay will probably be on the recommended policies the Bank of England should follow in the post-Brexit UK. Dissertation work continues, but I’m afraid progress is pretty slow and might get even slower with all the deadlines approaching.

 

However, I try not to get too caught up in the academic work and have some fun as well. Even though it is important to get good grades (especially in third year), it is also necessary to remember that everybody needs a break sometimes, to chill and let your mind rest for a bit. Luckily, Lancaster offers a lot in terms of social activities and ways of relaxing.

After last week’s debate on atheism and religion, this week in the Philosophy Society we’re going to have a social event: we’ll watch the movie Her, and then talk about the philosophical themes and undertones behind it (hopefully while chilling in a bar nearby). There is also the option of going to the cinema, either the Take2 cinema on campus or the one in town. Finally, I hope that in spite of the deadlines my friends and I can still go out this weekend to the Sugarhouse, a club run by our very own students’ union.

 

I’ll keep you guys posted on how everything goes during the second half of this term. Thanks for reading!

Guillermo

Hi guys and girls, welcome back!

I hope everyone is having a nice start to the month and enjoying all the autumnal colours.

This week will be an eventful one for me. Tomorrow I have another dissertation meeting, and although I am around 2000 words in, I’m starting to feel the pressure; particularly the pressure of expectations considering that the topic I have chosen is quite obscure. Week 5 is around the time in which to start thinking about essay plans, and because I am taking two specialist subjects, this means I have two mini-dissertations of 5000 words each on top of my 10,000 word dissertation to pursue and plan for this week. The questions for these two extended essays are expected to be formulated independently, so I have a lot of work to do. This is just the work side of my life right now!

In other news, Thursday morning I am heading back home to Jersey. Although it really isn’t the best timing, the motivation is definitely a good one. I have been asked to give a speech on the Thursday evening to potential International Baccalaureate students and their parents at an open evening at my old high school. This opportunity was particularly important to me, because, despite the fact that I hate public speaking, I feel that I owe the fantastic teachers from my old school for putting me on this path, and leading me to where I am today. In fact, if it wasn’t for the leap of faith I took in moving sixth form and pursuing a diploma pretty unheard of (and massively underrated, might I say) against the will of my parents, I would never have taken Philosophy as a class, and I doubt I’d have gone to university at all. The IB set me up for university in ways that I could never have predicted, and despite how hard it was, it instilled in me a work ethic which I probably wouldn’t have gained elsewhere. More than this, it prompted me to appreciate the importance of a holistic education, which as I mentioned in my last blog, was a motivating factor in my choosing Lancaster as my place of further study.

I think going home will be a nice relief for me, and hopefully it will help me get through the mid-term slump I am currently experiencing; this is normal, by the way. I am also having trouble with student finance which isn’t great, but I’m trying to be positive; a positive mindset is important when you have a lot of work on your plate. Anyway, it just so happens that the Thursday I return falls on one of my friend’s birthday’s, and I haven’t seen her since early September, so it will be nice to spend some time with her, and share our term’s experiences so far. Living so far away I tend not to go home until the uni breaks, so I’m feeling it might break up my term a little and push me to work harder when I come back.

Sunday evening we’re making a flat meal – there are 6 of us in my flat and we try to do this every now and then. It will be a curry night, and honestly, I’m already excited for it! One of my flatmates is directing me on how to make an authentic red lentil Dahl (from a recipe passed down from his grandmother), pretty cool, right?! I return on Saturday evening, so it will definitely be something to look forward to.

See, I’ll only be gone for a few days, but I’m already looking forward to coming back despite any setbacks or slumps. Lancaster is home.

I’ll check in with you all soon and let you know how the speech went, (please cross your fingers and toes for me.) I think I’ve decided that these blogs will be best if I do them bi-weekly, so that I have more to report on, unless something particularly worth writing about comes along. I’ll try my best to keep you engaged!

Take Care,

Ellie