Hi everyone,

So, last weekend was the British University College Sport Nationals weekend in Sheffield. Over the weekend, there were 7 sports all going on at the same time – Badminton, Climbing, Fencing, Indoor Athletics, Judo, Karate, Rifle and Long Course Swimming.

Lancaster University did really well. A couple of my friends helped break university records, which is a fabulous achievement. In terms of my own perforamce, I finally got an official time for my 100m breaststroke in long course swimming (1 minute, 35.33 seconds). Long course swimming is when the pool is 50m long instead of the normal 25m, (I missed the little breaks you would get as you turned in a 25m pool very much!!) Despite a few hiccups here and there for other members of the team and myself, everyone did super well and it is always an honour to wear your Lancaster swimming hat and show the country what we can do.

Back down to reality from the weekend of competition, I have been making some good progress on my essays. For my public economics essay, I am writing about the theories of voter turnout. I am also doing a very similar essay for my politics course on elections, voters and political parties. Whilst both essays take a very different approach to the subject, I find it great to work on a subject that actually blends my two separate degree subjects together. It is allowing me to get a deep understanding of a subject which is often a point of contention once election data is released. My dissertation is also coming along nicely. I have been enjoying writing it a lot because I have a passion for American politics and it has allowed me to learn a lot about President George W. Bush, as well as allowing me to develop key academic skills in my search for information and examples about President Trump.

Finally, this week is perhaps the biggest week of them all for Lancaster University Politics Society. On Friday 22nd February, the society will host its first ever ball! This has been a long process to get all the bits and pieces together, but I have every belief it will be a brilliant event that all our members will enjoy.

That’s all for now everyone, take care.

Orla

 

Hey guys!

 

I hope those of you who came last week enjoyed the Open day! Week 7 is already here, accompanied by an incredibly good weather and by the call of duty to our essays. With 4 weeks to go, most of us are already starting to get tense about the deadlines, and it is about time to get serious about the work we do. Things are going quite well for me, so I can’t complain much. I have only two essays left for the end of this term, and the dissertation for the end of April, so I feel that I can manage it.

At the same time however, it is tempting to leave everything and enjoy the weather! For those of you who have already been on campus, you’ll have seen how big and open it is, and it is in these warm times that one can best enjoy it. One thing people tend to do is read and study outside, it is actually quite enjoyable and contributes to create a general feel good factor that is quite necessary in this period.

 

If you’ll excuse me, I must now return to writing my essays and joining my fellow classmates in doing the photosynthesis outside. I’ll keep you posted of how things develop!

Guillermo

Hey everyone!
First of all, I want to thank you for those who came to the Applicant Visit Day on Saturday. I hope you had a great day, I certainly did, I enjoyed talking to you and to your parents, and thankfully, the weather was very nice which made the day even better.

It has been a very busy 2 weeks since my last post, as my sister came to visit me for five days. It was amazing: we had loads of social time with my flatmates who couldn’t have been more amazing, went out on Friday, went to Morecambe for a nice walk, and watched one of my friends play a football game. As I will not be able to go home until the end of June, it was so nice to have some sister time, and to show her what my life looks like here (not to mention all the Hungarian goods she brought me).

Since she left, I am trying to catch up with all the studying which feels like a mission impossible right now, but hopefully, I will manage all the essays, dissertation and seminar readings. I also met my dissertation supervisor to discuss my next step which was really helpful, as I now have a very clear idea how my dissertation is going to go. I started working in the pre-school after a long time, which is great; it’s so good to be back with the children.

Maybe it’s only for just a brief time but we’ve had quite a few beautiful sunny days here, in Lancaster (so we do get sun even during the winter ), which means spring is coming! I love this time of the year when the weather gets warmer and sunnier and the campus becomes very lively with students enjoying the sunshine. I already feel happier and more energised and I try to spend as much time outside as possible, when I catch up with friends on Alex Square (the main square of the uni) or go for a walk around the campus.

Next week will be very busy as well, as this time my friend from Hungary is visiting me for a few days, which is amazing, especially that she’ll be here on my birthday.

That’s about it for now. Have a lovely week, everyone!

Zsofia

Hi guys,

The last few months for me have been very busy. I’ve have been applying for some funding for my PhD next year, and away in London for a Cyber Security competition. Lumpy has been staying at home keeping an eye on my house and reminding me that I need to sleep in the evenings and write during the day… not the other way around!

The last few months have also seen our first Offer Holder Visit days! These days are an opportunity to see the campus again, learn more about what studying in PPR might be like, and to meet some of the awesome staff and students here!

There are 3 more Visit Days coming up, so sign up for one of those if you can; they really are very helpful!

I went to an offer holder day this time 3 years ago, and it was a really great day! I got to remind myself of what the campus looked like, and think more clearly about what it might be like to actually live here. It helped to ground me in the knowledge that the place where I would study was also somewhere I liked to walk around, and felt safe in.

Talking about the course defiantly filled me with a feeling of wonder and excitement that had stuck around to this day. I was able to see that I really would be learning about topics that I loved, and had the opportunity to learn about others that I had never encountered before. I also realised that I would be able to still learn a little about History, without having to do an entire History Course. This helped my transition to university a lot, as I didn’t quite feel ready to end my formal study of history, but I also didn’t want to do it as my degree – doing it as a minor helped patch this discomfort.

 

Hello everyone,

It was a pleasure to meet some of you at our last open day, I hope all involved enjoyed the day and hopefully gained valuable insight into life at Lancaster, ideally helping you to make that big decision. Thanks to all for your interesting questions, I hope myself and the department did a good job at answering them; if not, feel free to get in touch and we’ll do the best we can. I continue looking forward to meeting more of you in the coming weeks, perhaps this coming Saturday.

We’re now in Week 7 of second term, meaning deadlines are approaching quickly. I mentioned in my last blog that my intention was to start summarising the content I’ve been learning over the past weeks, in preparation for essay writing. I kept my word, and have started this, along with supplementary readings with intention to start planning this week; giving me around three weeks to get my essays done.

I received a few grades back last week, which was incredibly relieving, particularly as I wasn’t feeling too confident about them. It was difficult to know where I stood, having written over 14,000 words during the Christmas period; so the results felt like a great weight off my shoulders. I was concerned mostly about getting my grade back for Moral Philosophy, the specialist module on Parfit’s Reasons and Persons I took in first term to challenge myself, since I struggled understanding his work since first year – when Sam Clark introduced Parfit’s work in his module on Death. Although I found it very difficult, I thought the module to be worthwhile, as I ended up with a grade I’m more than content with.

I’m really enjoying Aesthetics this term, in fact it feels like the most enjoyable module I’ve taken in part II, which makes the prospect of essay writing enjoyable. If I could give some advice to students starting out, it would be to ensure you’ve read and researched the course/module descriptions before enrolling in them. This is good practice, particularly in first and second year, as you can select modules of interest to you, and if you find they are as enjoyable as you assumed, you can select similar ones in Part II/ third year; meaning you can pursue a more in depth study of what interests you. Nonetheless, not knowing what interests you is equally as fruitful, and now is an opportunity to experiment and find out.

In Reading Political Theory, we’ve moved on from Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, and we’re now studying Iris Marion Young’s Justice and the Politics of Difference. Until this point, I couldn’t find a flaw in Rawls’s work. What is so interesting about Young’s work is that it questions the real life applicability of Justice; which Rawls’s work seems to skirt. Young talks about injustice manifesting in the relations we have in society, between people. Because we are born into society with immediate relations with other people (i.e. if we are fortunate enough to have parents or caregivers, already we are in relation to other people from birth), justice must concern these relations. Rawls, in a way, asks us to ignore these relations and rather to imagine what life would be like from any point of view, in abstraction from these relations, from an Original Position. In contrast, Young thinks that injustice is manifested by the culmination of actions and choices of many different people, who all might be following the rules. Those who are victims of injustice may even be contributing to their own suffering unknowingly by following those “rules”, which might be implicit social rules, which, when followed by all, although oftentimes unconsciously, cause injustice.

The above on Rawls and Young is sketchy and introductory in nature, don’t take my word as gospel: I only intend to give some insight into what I’ve been reading recently.

Sunday afternoon my flat and I visited Williamson Park, it was beautiful weather as its starting to look a lot like spring here. We took a tapestry to sit on and had a picnic under the sun. From where I live Williamson Park is only a few minutes walk.

Very best of luck to all of you who have began revising for your summertime exams, and I hope everyone had a nice half term.

I’ll speak to you all soon,

Ellie

Hey everyone,

So this week, we are halfway through term! Honestly, I do not know where the times goes!

On the academic front, I have made my decisions on my coursework essay titles. For my module on international trade, I will be writing about Canada’s trading patterns – so what does Canada export and import and to who? This is all using the theories and models we have learnt so far, so this will be a good challenge in applying what I have been learning about. For my other two modules – public economics and elections, voters and political parties, i will be writing about voting behaviour. I find it really interesting how a subject, such as voting behvaiour, has been taken up by economics as well as politics. It shows just how interlinked and complementary the two subjects can be.

Outside of coursework and dissertation work, this weekend (15-17th February) is a big date in the swimming and water polo calendar. It is the British University and College Sport Long Course Championships. This is where we swim in an Olympic size (50m) swimming pool. I shall be swimming in the 50m and 100m breaststroke. I love it when weekends like this come around because it is a chance to put all that training to work and show the rest of the country what Lancaster can do.

Also, next week is the first ever Lancaster University Politics Society Ball. The executive committee and I are so excited about this because it has been an aspiration of the society for some time, and who doesn’t love the chance to get glamourous for the evening?

That’s about it for my mid-term update. Hope everything is going well for you all.

Speak soon,

Orla.

Hey guys,

Hope everything is going great! Times flies by here in Lancaster. I cannot believe it is week 5 already, I have been so busy I just realised we are halfway through the term. There is quite a lot of work to be done: this is usually the time when I start my essays, thinking about which questions I am going to answer and how. I don’t have an essay for Economics, just another presentation on Education and student achievement. In my Africa module, I am torn between writing about the relationship between the instance of Structural Adjustment Programmes and the Politics of Aid in the continent, or about the role that contemporary China is playing in the development Sub-Saharan region. Finally, for my Continental Philosophy module, my essay will be about Nietzsche’s method in his Genealogy of Morals, I think I can write quite a lot about it.

At the same time, we recently had elections in the Philosophy Society and I got elected again to be on the exec. This means that I will have to help the new members coordinate the events and start thinking about some new things we could do. I have a couple of ideas that I’m really excited for, so I hope they work out in the end!

 

By the way, don’t forget we have another Visit Day this Saturday, I’d encourage you to come see Lancaster and get a taste of life around here (I just hope it won’t rain). See you guys around!

Guillermo

Hi everyone,

I thought I’d drop in and let you know what’s been going on in my world recently. 

So, it’s Week 5; that means we’re half way through the term already … and deadlines are approaching quickly. The time goes incredibly fast here, which is why it is important to check in and reflect every now and then about how far you’ve come. I have three deadlines coming up for the end of term, two on the 22nd of March, and one on the 18th. I really would like to start at least summarising some of the topics I have covered in the past weeks as they’re still fresh in my mind, as well as pursue some secondary reading to supplement my summaries. Whether or not this gets done this week is really a different story – I have lots of dissertation work to be doing at the same time, on top of readings for my courses; so finding time is somewhat challenging (definitely not as bad when following a schedule, though!)

Last weekend I went back home, there was snow in Liverpool and I was really worried I wouldn’t get home – three flights before me were delayed two hours, but I got lucky! All went smoothly. When I was home I got a chance to catch up with all my friends which was awesome, and spent some time with my mum too, as she took time off work. Like I’ve mentioned before, I think it’s really important to take time to recoup at University: if you can get home every 5 weeks or so it really helps to break up term time into manageable chunks. If you can’t – definitely make an effort to socialise with your friends – social time is just as important as study, and that correct balance is so important to strike. 

This weekend I saw a friend, we made sweet potato and chickpea curry, and I must say, it was pretty impressive. My cooking has definitely improved since going vegetarian. For anyone that is coming to university without much in the way of cooking skills, I’d definitely suggest trying to expand your set when you get here; making meals as a group is a good way to start. 

I also made chocolate-chip [avocado…] protein cookies:

avocado… sounds tasty…right? Credit goes to https://ifoodreal.com/chocolate-protein-cookies/ for the completely vegan recipe. I found this recipe online whilst looking for a healthy cookie alternative for a particular cookie monster, I wanted to try the recipe out for myself before sharing them with him.

Coming up this weekend is another applicant visit day – I hope to meet some of you there! 

Catch up with you all soon,

Ellie 

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all well, and you are enjoying the cold weather and maybe some snow as well. Being my last term, it’s the most difficult and busiest one with even more readings, presentations and work to do than before, not to mention the dissertation…That means I spend most of my time in the library, trying to compete with the time and get as much work done as it’s possible a day. Thankfully, having amazing modules with great people and lecturers this term makes it all worthwhile and more enjoyable. I have three modules this term as well, plus the dissertation that is due the last day of April.

I’m taking the US Foreign Policy since 1945 in which I was always very interested; therefore I had high expectations that were fortunately, exceeded. The lectures are not only lectures where we sit and listen but there is usually a group discussion at the end of each one where we discuss interesting questions on the topic. The seminars are very organized; we have debates that most of the times end in slightly heated but very interesting discussions that give me something to think about after the seminar. Another module that I am taking is Contemporary Issues in Human Rights which brings a bit of law into my political understanding of the world. This week we had a particularly interesting topic as we talked about a specific case about child detention in relation to the European Convention which gave us a deeper understanding of how human rights courts deal with different cases, how the legal process goes and what obstacles the lawyers might face during the process. My third module is on Islamic Politics which is a very small class that I find better and more effective. As I have always been very interested in the religion itself and wanted to know more about how it works and its relationship with the West, I really enjoy it.

As far as my non-academic life is concerned, I have been really focused on studying, so it is quite similar every day; I spend it with my flatmates when we talk, have fun, play pool or go out for a drink in the evening which is really nice after a long and busy day. We also enjoy different events such as free cake and coffee or free breakfast organized by the colleges which is a nice way to start the day or to take a break from studying in the middle of the day. I worked on the Applicant Visit Day on Saturday (I hope that if any of you attended, enjoyed it) which was great. It was really nice to talk to students and their parents, sharing my experiences and helping them decide whether coming to Lancaster University is the right choice for them. Next week should be a lot of fun as my sister is coming to visit me for a few days that I am very excited about. I cannot wait to show her what a student life looks like at a University in the United Kingdom. So stay tuned!

Until then, have a great weekend!

Zsofi