Feb 2020-Feb 2021
2020 REVIEW
After the AGM in February 2020, Polsoc took a trip to Amsterdam. Despite the museums being closed due to Coronavirus, we still managed to have a great time and see the sights!
When we returned, we were put into a national lockdown which affected the way we operate drastically. Our funding was cut and we had to move to be completely online when usually we are always in person. Over what would have been third term and summer, we hosted lots of different online events. Socials included netflix parties and themed Kahoots. Our more informative events involved panels on George Floyd and police brutality, Covid-19, and Me Too. These events saw our viewership increase dramatically. Further to this we covered the EU Green New Deal, populism in Poland, and an event on dissidents in North Korea. Overall we tried to keep people engaged and occupied over the first national lockdown and over the pandemic.
At the beginning of the next academic year we held our EGM. Hosting an election online was tough and time-consuming, but it meant we had new committee members! At the beginning of term we had some Cheese and Wines nights with department staff and our Social Secretaries held some Quiz nights. For the US election we had a quiz on American politics and we streamed the results with a panel of experts who commented as polls were released. Both of these events were highly subscribed too! Following this we hosted more interesting events including an Among Us social, a panel on Kyrgyzstan, an event on Australian immigration and a talk about Brexit, Covid and the UK food system.
In second term we hit the ground running with an event which starred Baroness Hale which attracted an astounding crowd. Our liberation reps also hosted an event titled ‘Celebrating Women in Politics’ which was open to the whole University and was extremely informative and interesting. In February, we brought back Polsoc vs Policy where we debate policy ideas that our members suggest. We also hosted an event on Biden’s America and a Scattergories social. Another highly subscribed event was on change in Uzbekistan which was in collaboration with Oxus Society. This event attracted attendance from two ambassadors to/from Uzbekistan and was extremely interesting to learn about their history. In an attempt to integrate first year students who may have not met their coursemates yet, we held a ‘Meet Your Coursemates’ event too. This event really helped Politics students to meet each other and we plan to host more in the future. We then hosted an event on legal aid with Martin Jones which was open to Law students too. Finally we host an event on migration in post-colonial Britain which provided some great insight.
All in all, 2020 was a crazy year for Polsoc with many ups and downs. It was difficult to lead a society completely online, but thanks to the great work of the committee Polsoc did very well! A big thank you to the 2020 committee and to everyone that attended our events, who allowed us to be so successful. Hopefully 2021 can be even better for Polsoc.
Thank you for a great two years on the Polsoc committee,
Polsoc President,
Jasmine Ormrod.