The Beaver - #912

The Beaver Making Sense of LSE Since 1949

Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

-

beaveronline.co.uk

-

Issue 912

-

Wednesday 30 September 2020

“WE WERE ALREADY WORKING AT THE EDGE”

As the School faces record budget shortfalls and uncertainty plagues the wider academic job market, LSE’s young academics are voicing their concerns about precarious employment, increased workloads, and their future prospects in academia.*

Yasmina O’Sullivan Features Editor

L

ike many universities, LSE has faced substantial financial challenges in the fallout of COVID-19: early estimates put the shortfall from the cancellation of the Summer School alone at £70 million—a nearly 20% reduction in LSE’s typical annual income.

Additional losses were incurred

by LSE’s inability to rent out halls of residence during the Summer Term and the looming potential of students not returning, the extent of which will not be known until the first round of tuition payments later in the autumn.

Such losses, confirmed to be “dramatic changes” by members of the Directorate, cast the spotlight on a key fact of early-career academic employment at LSE: 59% of LSE’s staff work are on contracts of between one to three years.

They are considered ‘precarious’ by some, because their continued employment is highly dependent on the School’s overall financial outlook. That outlook, now also seems ‘precarious.’

Following a summer of organising by fixed-term staff and statements of support from permanent academic colleagues, The Beaver heard from multiple early-career academics and trade union representatives about

their concerns as LSE prepares to return. Their testimonies reflect a sense of betrayal by the university over a perceived abandonment of fixed-term staff, concern about the looming workload as the university pivots to blended learning, and fear for the quality of teaching, given the university’s approach. One staff member told The Beaver that COVID-19 has brought to light already existing fault lines in academia, which were “exacerbated in how the university has responded to the crisis. If not COVID, then something else would have shown this crisis point.”

These testimonies challenge statements by LSE to The Beaver. An LSE spokesperson assured that it is “continuing to employ the necessary staff to ensure excellent teaching and research continues to take place.” However, young academics describe potentially increased teaching responsibility, spread between fewer staff, while balancing their need to produce academic work. “If you are not a precarious academic you can say this year is a wash out, my paper, my research, my book,” one staff member said.

Can precarious staff stay it’s a washout year? Will they be rewarded in the job market if they say they provided extra support to the university through the crisis? No.”

Illustration by Ellie Reeves

Beaver Editor

L

SE’s student satisfaction rate has risen to 84% in the yearly National Student Survey (NSS), which is completed by finalyear students and is considered a benchmark for student experiences across the country. The School scored 71% in 2018 and 78% in 2019.

This year marks the School’s best result since at least 2014, when LSE peaked at 81% before years of protracted decline. The issue has long been a priority for the School: in his final report as LSE Director, Professor Craig Calhoun expressed that declining satisfaction rates

were among his greatest regrets, promising that “We are working now to effect a real step change.”

The results mark a substantial improvement on LSE’s historical average, which had previously placed it among the lowest in the Russell Group and low among its London counterparts. The new results place LSE above its London neighbours at Imperial (81%), Queen Mary (80%), King’s (77%), and SOAS (77%). LSE ranked 64th nationally, and had the third-highest rating among London universities.

To be listed, at least 50% of a university’s final-year students must respond to the questionnaire.

Student satisfaction rankings are de-

LSE Returns to a Socially Distanced Campus and On-Site Testing UK A-Level Scandal Causes Concerns Over Departmental Funding

3

LSE joins Cambridge in Fight to Prevent Future Pandemics (Continues Page 9 )

LSE Student Satisfaction Rises to 84%, Now Third Highest in London Colin Vanelli

Inside Today News

rived from the proportion of students agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement “Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course”.

Since January 2017, the National Union of Students (NUS) and Universities and College Union (UCU) have maintained a boycott of the NSS over concerns that the NSS treats “students as passive customers”, by coupling results to tuition-fee rises under the government’s controversial Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), and over its use for internal performance management.

In a year marked by renewed UCU strike action at universities across the UK, as well as by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic during

DON’T FORGET TO FLIP OVER FOR

the NSS’s spring response window, notable absences from the list include Oxford, Cambridge, and UCL. Responding to the news in a July press release, Director Minouche Shafik said “I am delighted to see our NSS results continue to significantly improve, especially considering the challenges we have all faced in the last year.

“Enhancing students’ educational and overall experiences remains a top priority for LSE, and will be a key focus as we move towards flexible ways of teaching and learning for next term. We have made great progress, but there is still more to do.”

4

Opinion

How can we Decolonise LSE, if at all?

Features

7

Running a Society During a Pandemic

11

FLIPSIDE

The Beaver

2

Wednesday 30 September 2020 | The Beaver www.beaveronline.co.uk

Established 1949 | Issue 911 | Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

Meet the team Executive Editor Lucy Knight editor@beaveronline.co.uk Managing Editor James Boucher managing@beaveronline.co.uk Flipside Editor Zehra Jafree flipside@beaveronline.co.uk Beaver Editor Colin Vanelli beaver@beaveronline.co.uk Multimedia Editor Ellie Reeves multimedia@beaveronline.co.uk Editorial Assistant Will Tye Illustrators and Photographers Raphaelle Carmarcat Sebastian Mullen Angie Abdalla News Editor Jeffrey Wang Opinion Editors Gabby Sng Christiana Ajai-Thomas

Coronavirus? The Beaver Doesn’t Give a Dam (But Please Wear Your Mask) Lucy Knight

Executive Editor

W

ell, how was everyone’s summer?

Welcome (or welcome back) to LSE, and to The Beaver! It’s great to see you, that face mask really brings out your eyes.

For those who don’t know, we are the LSESU’s only student newspaper, now going into our 72nd year. We’ve got some great things planned, and hopefully we’ll get to do them all before the world ends.

If I can say one thing to anyone reading this (do people read these?), is to not take this year for granted. It doesn’t matter what year you’re in, because if Corona can teach us anything, it’s that a) people really need to wear their masks, and b) opportunities, experiences, all that soppy shit, can dissapear pretty quickly - when you don’t wash your hands.

I was elected Executive Editor in March, about 2 hours after we were told that uni was

closing due to Coronavirus. I wasn’t sure what the future would hold, as everybody else was, and my second year ended almost as soon as it had begun. I never got to say goodbye to my international friends as they flew back home before the borders were set to close, some of whom were graduating or General Course students who I was sure I’d never see again.

And, especially important to me, The Beaver never got to properly say goodbye to a select few who really made the paper what it is today.

Chris Ivey was Flipside Editor last year, and took it from strength to strength. Always situated in their little corner of the Media Centre, she brought laughter, memes, and the most amazing monochromatic outfits I’d ever seen. And for those of you who read us last year, you may know Morgan Fairless as the previous Executive Editor. Most commonly found huddled behind his Mac, often interrupting the chatter of the Media Centre with a variety of Spanish curse words, he left very big shoes for me to fill. And on behalf of the Exec team for

Also, follow us on social media (@ beaveronline for Twitter and Instagram), as you’ll see a lot less of the physical paper this year. However, even despite our reduced printing, that doesn’t mean we won’t still be giving you hard-hitting investigations, insightful commentary, our mildly funny satire pieces, and reviews on just about everything.

Another Year, Another Beaver

Features Editors Marianne Hii Yasmina O’Sullivan

Colin Vanelli

Part B Editor Grace Chapman

Beaver Editor

Review Editors Amber Iglesia Molly Horner

A

lot happened this summer that has made me think of The Beaver: where we’ve been, where we are, and where we need to go.

I’ve mostly been thinking about an old adage: the one that goes something like “who we are is not how far we fall, but how we bounce back.”

Sport Editor Sam Taylor Social Editor Miles McCollum

Of course, it’s complete shit. If life teaches us anything - or, if this summer has taught us anything, for those of us lucky enough to not have to constantly think about these things; it’s that our ability to bounce back is totally conditional.

We’ve got to be a resilient community, but we also need to recognise that some people are going to need extra support to get back to square one.

Podcast Editor Angbeen Abbas

Beaver Sound team Beatriz Silva Masie Adair

In a speech last spring, Minouche memorably touted LSE as a microcosm of the world we’d like to see. We’re a microcosm, all right, but not an ideal one: it doesn’t take a genius to see that LSE is riddled with the same overlapping systems of prejudice, oppression, and general shittiness that otherwise pervade everyday life.

Any opinions expressed herein are those of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the LSE Students’ Union or Beaver Editorial Staff.

We’re a student newspaper - and a pretty small one, at that - so I’m not saying that we alone can, will, or should fix this. But The Beaver’s mission is to document the LSE experience as honestly as possible. And we need to do more to achieve that.

The Beaver is issued under a Creative Commons license.

We made a good start last year: putting out some notable reporting on the working conditions of LSE’s cleaning staff, investigating inequalities within the student community, and working hard in the spring to use our platform to push for fair and equitable ex-

Attribution necessary.

Room 2.02 Saw Swee Hock Student Centre LSE Students’ Union London WC2A 2AE 020 7955 6705

this year, Morgan, I hope we make you proud.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the first issue of the 2020/21 academic year. Things are different this year, not only because Corona fucked everything up, but because we’re adapting to new ways of bringing you the best of The Beaver. Make sure to join our ‘Intro to The Beaver’ Zoom session on Wednesday 30th September from 7-8pm, where you’ll get a chance to (virtually) meet some of our editors, find out how we operate, and learn more about how to get involved. To get more information on this, why don’t you just get our free membership? The QR code is at the bottom left...

*Due to factors beyond The Beaver’s control, we were unable to grant LSE a right of reply to the cover story “Young Academics Express Anxiety over Job Security and Surging Workload” (Cover; cont’d pg. 9) before the paper went to print. Any further comments or corrections will be issued to the online edition of this article.

ams for all LSE students, to name just a few.

Now we’re back to work, and we can’t do our work without you: the student, staff member, professor, cleaner, porter, barista, or whatever role you occupy in the LSE community.

We love stories, and we’d love to tell yours.

So please reach out: you can find our socials in Lucy’s editorial and on the broadsheet. If you’d prefer to remain anonymous, hit me up on Signal or Telegram at +447477916115.

This year, especially, it’s important that our reporting is on the ball. The fights which have and will continue to captivate LSE students: against sexual assault, against systematic racism, towards climate justice, and in support of our community’s most vulnerable - cannot go silent in the pages of The Beaver. If you’re a student who would like to join us in elevating these voices, you know the drill. These pages are practically begging you to join up.

Another thing: At the end of the day, we’re a student paper, filled with a bunch of kids who are still finding their journalistic feet. That means that, on occasion, we make mistakes. Sometimes we miss stuff, and, as LSE’s student newspaper, we know tat those mistakes carry consequences. So if you see anything you don’t like, let us know. We’d love the opportunity to learn.

News

News Editor Jeffrey Wang

3

Email us: beaver@thebeaveronline.co.uk

Into LSE’s Return: On-Site Testing, Library Restrictions, and Socially Distanced Campus LSE returns to campus after the school was closed in March over COVID-19 concerns

The News Team Mary Ma

Staff Writer

Cindy Ren Staff Writer

Yasmina O'Sullivan Features Editor

I

n preparation for LSE's return to campus, LSE hosted a staff town hall which outlined many of the proposed systems for protecting staff and students from COVID-19.

These proposals include a test-andtrace system with on-site testing, capacity limitations in the Library and other common spaces, and socially distant classrooms, among others.

These measures, some of which are being confirmed for the first time, represent the School’s attempt to balance the personal safety of students and staff against the dangers posed by the UK’s rising case incidence of COVID-19, which is particularly concentrated among young people.

LSE has told students it expects all students to return to campus for its late-September start, although it will make arrangements for students who are unable to return to London or are required to quarantine. The Beaver understands that students who have approached LSE about not returning to campus have been asked to provide justifications, such as an inability to travel due to government restrictions.

Andrew Young, LSE’s Chief Operating Officer, announced that LSE was working on developing an internal track-and-trace system, which will be spearheaded by on-site testing available to all LSE students and staff. LSE plans to encourage all students to get tested in the first weeks of term to identify asymptomatic cases in the community. Young emphasized that only people without symptoms of COVID-19 should utilize on-site testing; anyone experiencing symptoms, he

said, must quarantine at home and follow NHS guidance for testing.

In line with government social distancing guidelines, all classrooms in the School have been adapted so that individual desks are at least 1.5 metres apart, and group tables have been removed. Students and teachers will be required to wear masks at all times within LSE buildings. If a student in class tests positive, only those who were within 2 meters of the individual for 15 minutes or more will be required to quarantine.

The Library will operate at 30% capacity to ensure social distancing.

In order to reduce foot traffic, the Library will operate a click-and-collect system for books and research materials, and some classrooms around campus will be bookable through the Library for group study.

The Three Tuns, LSESU’s student pub, will be open for table-service only between 12:00 and 22:00 on

weekdays. Capacity will be reduced to allow for social distancing. The SU’s first floor cafe will be open between 9:00 and 15:00 on weekdays, and the gym will operate 7:00 to 22:00 on Monday-Friday and 10:00 to 18:00 on the weekend. Members will have to pre-book a one-hour slot; all slots will be followed by a 30 minute gym closure for cleaning.

Students and staff will be required to complete weekly health questionnaires certifying that they are free of COVID-19 symptoms. Staff divisions submitted risk assessments in advance of their in-person return to campus, which will be stored in a public portal to ensure transparency.

Students and staff will receive hand sanitizer and two face masks as part of their welcome pack, and staff can request visors through the Estates Division. For students unable to return to campus, LSE has invested in

closed-captioning software to assist students with hearing problems or learning difficulties who will attend classes virtually.

Separately, Professor Eric Neumayer, Pro-Director for Faculty Development, assuaged concerns that students would not return in the fall, saying that registration numbers looked good, but the School would not be able to have full confidence in the numbers until the first round of tuition payments in late October. Neumayer said that most cases of students not returning to campus have been related to visaprocessing delays faced by international students.

Colin Vanelli contributed to reporting.

Government A-Level Scandal Leads to Almost 300 More Freshers at LSE Than Expected, Funding Concerns Raised 300 additional freshers lead to increased revenue and difficulties

Jeffrey Wang News Editor

D

ue to national exam scandals across the UK, LSE's firstyear undergraduate intake has increased by almost 300 students compared to previous cohorts, raising concerns about funding. UK students sitting pre-university ALevel exams this year were subject to multiple scandals over downgrading and teacher predictions, leading to confusion over grades and confirmation of offers. Eventually, the government allowed students to secure their predicted grades for entry into university. Earlier in the year, LSE gave more offers than in a typical year, combining with improved offer success rates to increase the first-year cohort.

A spokesperson from LSE, said that “We are delighted that all firm

offer holders who met their conditions of entry this year have received a place at LSE. We fully appreciate how challenging this year has been for students and wanted to recognise this by honouring all offers.

The change in Department for Education policy to use Centre Assessed Grades has increased our projected overall undergraduate intake in 2020/2021. Whilst final numbers are still being established, the increase is very likely to be fewer than 300 students, spread across all academic departments.”

Whilst this increase of students represents an increased revenue for LSE - which may prove crucial amid the COVID-19 crisis, some have called into question the greater strain on departmental resources.

When asked how this additional windfall would be allocated, LSE stated, “Any additional revenue this year will go directly into extra resourcing across the School. We are fully committed to putting in place what is needed to accommodate additional teaching and learning in line

with health and safety protocols, as well as ensuring an excellent student experience. This continues from our existing commitment to strengthen the Welcome experience this year with the launch of Get LSE-Ready, our first-ever digital pre-sessional to help the new cohort transition to life at LSE, and a new microsite to build an inclusive and welcoming environment for all."

LSE also said that the additional resources would directly benefit departments which have received disproportionate numbers of additional students via additional hiring, spacing and funding.

Separately, some members of School leadership have expressed their concern to The Beaver that matriculation at the Masters level— where LSE earns most of its tuitionbased operating income—may be depressed due to circumstances surrounding COVID-19 and international visa-processing delays. LSE lost an estimated £70 million earlier this summer due to the cancellation of the Summer School, according to

estimates in the spring by sources within the School. Tuition fees represent the overwhelming majority of LSE’s income: of the School’s £370 million reported income in 2018-9, £230 million came from tuition fees.

The first tranche of tuition payments later in the fall will therefore be crucial in setting the School’s financial outlook for the coming months and years, given Pro-Director (Faculty Development) Eric Neumayer’s recent caution that not all students who have committed to attending LSE will necessarily join the School in the fall.

Colin Vanelli contributed to reporting.

Join the News Team!

Join our News Team as a staff writer and help us report and investigate LSE news.

For more information, visit beaveronline.co.uk/vacancies

Send us any tips to:

beaver@thebeaveronline.co.uk

4

News

Wednesday 30 September 2020 | The Beaver

SU takes steps to improve UGM LSE100 Cancelled, Citing Increased implementation Undergraduate Cohort After record-breaking year for student democracy, SU pushes for internal reform.

Increased cohort and safety concerns led to cancellation of LSE's flagship course

Colin Vanelli Beaver Editor

L

SE100, LSE’s flagship interdisciplinary course required for all first and second year students, has been cancelled for the 2020-1 academic year, The Beaver has learned. Jessica Templeton, LSE100 Director, said that “the scale of LSE100 was the key challenge, as with so many students enrolled, it… would not have been possible to run it in a physically-distanced way.”

Contrary to some concerns over LSE’s handling of fixed-term contracts, Templeton stressed that “lack of staffing was not a factor in the decision at all.”

It was not immediately clear whether incoming first-year students

will be required to take a half-unit LSE100 in the fall of their second year, nor was it clear whether students who have not yet successfully passed LSE100 would be waived of their degree requirement to pass the course.

LSE100 will resume in the 2021-2 academic year, following a redesign of the course structure and content.

Among other changes which will be implemented, members of LSE’s Climate Emergency Collective met with Templeton earlier this year to discuss ways to integrate learning about the climate emergency into future LSE100 courses. In a December statement to the Collective, LSE Director Minouche Shafik expressed plans to re-launch LSE100 to “further embed and address the climate and ecological crisis through education.”

Yasmina O'Sullivan contributed to reporting.

Colin Vanelli Beaver Editor

T

he Students’ Union lacked a plan to implement passed UGM motions for the past several academic years, leaving many motions without action or an implementation timeline, according to sources within the LSESU. The Beaver also understands that prior to late in the last academic year, the SU lacked a record of UGM motions passed within the last three years— the period during which such motions are considered LSESU policy.

Such reports raise questions about the SU’s capacity to properly implement democratic student decisions at a time when UGM motions are an increasingly popular instrument of student democracy. Last academic year saw an unprecedented spike in UGM proposals: whereas it had been normal in previous years for proposals to be ruled inquorate due to a lack of interest, a spate of highprofile motions in the past year have attracted hundreds of students and stimulated attention both on and off-campus.

The consensus from sources who spoke to The Beaver is that if an elected officer does not take up a passed policy, the policy will not progress into implementation.

Eight UGM motions passed during the shortened academic year—the most since 2016/7, when six motions passed, and which is the first year for which information was available.

Motions which correspond to LSESU campaigns—such as last November’s motions on sexual assault (by Hands Off LSE) and the climate emergency declaration (by the Climate Emergency Collective) —receive ongoing campaign support from permanent LSESU staff, but do not necessarily have a sabbatical of-

ficer responsible for implementing motion specifics.

For example, a motion passed two years ago mandating that the SU provide mandatory consent training to all students has not been implemented, and a source within the SU said that the motion “had not been touched” since it was passed. Whilst the LSESU collaborated with LSE bringing increased consent training with welcome events run by Consent Collective, these events were led by LSE and the Consent Collective and were not mandatory.

A UGM motion passed in December 2018 recognised this problem, stating: “No current policy including this one has any mechanism to report that it is being implemented.

This does not build faith that policies are being enacted.”

The motion asked the Union to establish a procedure for reporting on at least quarterly basis on progress made in policy implementation. Despite this, whilst elected officers do report their progress in UGMs, they do not necessarily have to update on progress made on passed policy and The Beaver understands that LSESU does not maintain a central procedure to track the process of passed UGM motions. Upon being pressed on the issue in the spring, the SU began drafting internal procedures for implementing motions, according to communications reviewed by the paper.

Such issues will now fall to the incoming General Secretary, David Gordon, to address. Gordon, the outgoing Community and Welfare Officer at the SU, campaigned on a manifesto which included a democracy review and the hiring of consultants to review the SU’s operating strategy. In a comment, Gordon told The Beaver that extraordinary levels of LSESU engagement in 201920 “exposed a flaw in the process underlying the implementation of SU motions,“ and promised that a

democracy review in the upcoming academic year would work towards improving the SU’s capacity to implement student democracy.

Morgan Fairless contributed to reporting.

LSE Joins £10m Challenge to Protect Against Future Pandemics LSE joins medical, tech and education sector in fight against future pandemics

Jeffrey Wang News Editor

L

SE Director Dame Minouche Shafik has joined fellow industry leaders in medicine, technology, and education in ‘The Trinity Challenge’, an effort to prevent a future COVID-19 severity pandemic. Launched on 14th September 2020 by Dame Sally Davies, Master of Trinity College Cambridge and former UK Chief Medical Officer, the program aims to generate and identify insights into the causes of pandemics by utilising the data and lessons learned during the fight against COVID-19.

When asked why the challenge was necessary, Dame Sally Davies replied, “We need new ways of working, new partnerships, new ideas, and believe that together this strong and growing coalition can and will generate acts that protect and improve lives and livelihoods everywhere.”

The challenges aim to tackle the complexity of pandemic prevention and response by looking at six

broad datasets gathered during the present COVID-19 response. These include: Health, Environment and Animals, Demographics, Mobility and Social, Socio-Economics, and Government and Policy.

The challenge will allow membersponsored working groups (‘challengers’) access to pooled data from all participating members and to receive “privileged access” to data sources. Application for challengers will open October 2020 via Ther Trinity Challenge’s website.

LSE will be joining a list of other distinguished organisations as a founding member of the challenge, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Facebook, Google, the University of Cambridge, and Tencent.

Commenting on the launch of The Trinity Challenge, Minouche Shafik, said: “The experiences of COVID-19 have shown us how pandemics do not respect borders. None of us is safe until we are all safe. By sharing cutting-edge data and analytics from around the world, we will be in a much stronger position to prevent health emergencies from happening, and better manage their impact if they do happen.

“By working together – across academia, businesses, and the social

sector - we can achieve more, more quickly and to the benefit of all of us.”

The initiative was welcomed by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,

Director-General of WHO, who said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the world was not prepared. Together, we all have a responsibility to do everything we can

to ensure a pandemic of this magnitude, with this level of disruption to lives and livelihoods, never happens again.”

www.beaveronline.co.uk | @beaveronline

Email us: beaver@thebeaveronline.co.uk

5

David Graeber, LSE’s Anthropology Heavyweight, Dies at 59 LSE mourns former anthropology professor and writer, famous for his activism

Colin Vanelli Beaver Editor

D

avid Graeber, Professor of Anthropology at LSE and colossus of social movements worldwide, died on 2 September in Venice, his wife announced. He was 59 years old.

With his work on theories of value, debt, and bureaucracy, Graeber was considered one of the finest modern anthropologists, and his largerthan-life role as a public intellectual attracted a considerable following among members and intellectuals of the modern Left.

Graeber’s public writings, among them Debt: The First 5000 Years (2011), The Utopia of Rules (2015), and Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (2018), did much to solidify his status as a world-renowned critic of modern value and trailblazer of modern anarchist thought.

As much as he was an academic, he devoted much of his energy to the social movements which formed the core of his political and academic life. He took part in the 2002 protests at the World Economic Forum, and later rose to great prominence as one of the leading figures in the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011, where he is believed to have coined the phrase “We are the 99%” – although, in classic Graeber fashion, he attributed it to a group effort.

He was a long-time fixture in the movement for Kurdish autonomy, traveling to Rojava, the Kurdish libertarian socialist project in northeastern Syria, and working closely with Kurdish comrades to make the case for Rojava to the outside world.

He was a regular speaker at

protests on LSE campus, and his influence over activism at LSE and around London was unmistakable.

To his students and mentees in the Anthropology department, he was an intellectual firebrand with a reputation for intense office hour debates and a teaching style which placed his classroom sessions at the centre of his intellectual life, using weekly sessions with students to sharpen his own theoretical work.

To the broader LSE community, he was a rare breed of public intellectual tirelessly committed to developing the next generation of thinkers and activists.

Born in 1961 to working-class Jewish intellectuals in New York, Graeber’s childhood interactions with radicalism suffused his later intellectual life. His father once fought for the anarchists in Barcelona during the civil war, and Graeber once said that he was an anarchist by the age of 16. He later rejected the label, preferring to see it as a philosophy of action rather than an identity.

After earning his PhD at the University of Chicago with a thesis on magic, slavery, and politics, Graeber joined the anthropology faculty at Yale. Yale’s decision to not rehire him when he was otherwise eligible for tenure ignited substantial controversy, with allegations that had been targeted for his outspoken public activism, in particular his support for a student who had been identified for expulsion by the university for her membership in a graduate students’ union, which were barred by the school at the time. Between 2008 and 2013 he was a reader and lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London.

He joined the London School

of Economics as Professor of Anthropology in 2013, where he taught courses on theories of value. He had previously given the 2006 Malinowski Lecture at the School, an honor reserved for earlycareer anthropologists who have made a substantial contribution to anthropological theory.

In a statement, Professor Laura Bear, Head of Department, LSE Anthropology said “We are very shocked and saddened to learn of David Graeber’s death. David was a hugely influential anthropologist, political activist and public intellectual. He will be greatly missed as a friend and colleague in

our department. Our community of staff and students will not be the same now he is gone, but we know his brilliant work will be read by generations to come.”

He is survived by his wife, artist and writer Nika Dubrovsky.

LSE Offers Free COVID-19 Testing for All Students LSE offering Coronavirus testing to promote campus safety

Mary Ma

Staff Writer

L

SE has begun offering coronavirus nucleic acid tests for all students and staff, starting from 21 September. The tests, provided on campus, are meant for students and staff who are planning to return to campus during Michaelmas Term and will last for three weeks. During this three-week testing period, any LSE community member can book an appointment via the school website for a free testing. The tests are intended only for community members who are not actively presenting symptoms of COVID-19; those presenting systems are asked to self-isolate and seek testing through the National Health Service (NHS).

On-campus test administration will be overseen by Thornbury Nursing Service, a non-LSE affiliated organization which provides nurses on short notices. The tests take around ten minutes per person and requires the usage of swabs to take samples from patients, one from the back of the throat and another from the nose.

Students will be required to download and register an account on the mobile app ‘Project Screen’ produced by Prenetics Limited in order to access their results.

The testing regime is part of the LSE Trace—an approach to prevent, protect, and minimise the risk of COVID-19 within the LSE community as on-campus activities return.

Besides the test, LSE Trace also includes the Weekly Wellness Checkin, which asks all members of the LSE community to complete a brief weekly check-in to let LSE monitor health statuses within the LSE community. LSE encourages community members to report any developed COVID-19 symptoms to the school and the NHS. LSE has also developed rules for maintaining social distance on campus. Most teaching rooms at LSE have seats marked out at a 2-metre distance from each other. A small number of teaching rooms have seats at a 1.5m distance.

The initial roll-out of testing was mired in confusion. Students who had booked tests on the initial day of testing, September 21, were told on the day before that their tests would not proceed, without reasons stated. An email sent to all students who had booked for COVID testing on Thursday, 24th September confirmed that testing had been suspended due to contractual difficul-

ties with laboratory providers and that a different provider needed to be sourced. Tests are now being run

by Project Screen, a non-profit venture of Hong Kong-based Prenetics Limited, under the auspices of forprofit DNA testing company Circle DNA. Prenetics acquired Circle DNA in 2018. The Beaver has not

yet been able to confirm the details of the contract between LSE and Prenetics Ltd.

Register online to contribute beaveronline.co.uk

7-9PM

Recordings will be made available

Opinion

7

Comment Editors Gabrielle Sng Christiana Ajai-Thomas

Email us: beaver@beaveronline.co.uk

On Decolonising LSE Christiana Ajai-Thomas argues that decolonisation is not synonymous with curriculum changes and ethnic minority achievement.

She suggests using terms like 'decolonisation' to describe such changes is, in itself, problematic.

Christiana AjaiThomas Opinion Editor

F

nisation, so as to neutralise them. In a statement on LSE’s commitment to challenging racial inequality, Director Dame Minouche Shafik cited the need to “create and sustain real change,” but what is 'change'? Black radicals have long stated that our liberation will not be comfortable - it requires a complete upheaval of the systems that oppress us. A university that charges upwards of £9250 a year for tuition and has no Black professors is without a doubt a benefactor and contributor to this oppression.

The co-optation is found, therefore, in this watering down of decolonisation where the university gets to decide for us what change means without doing anything substantial to change Black students’ present.

The university can focus on “diversifying the curriculum” or “antiracism training” without having to completely disrupt its business as usual. In fact, the idea that any university - with academia’s extensive history (and present) of furthering white supremacy - could decolonise itself is laughable at best when real-

“The use of the term

‘decolonisation’ removes it from its distinctly aggressive history and euphemises it into something more palatable.

“

anon defines decolonisation as putting the phrase “the last shall be first and the first shall be last” into practice and, for him, this will only happen through violent struggle. To quote Stokely Carmichael: “In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience.” The West has shown time and time again - through its brutal violence and disregard for non-white lives - that it has none.

Today, however, most people find decolonisation to be synonymous with curriculum changes and ethnic minority achievement. I’m not saying there is no value to pressing for change, nor am I expecting all LSE students to show up to their first day of university ready to burn it to the ground. Rather, my issue is with the language we use to describe such change.

LSE, as an institution, is one of many examples of neoliberalised academia which co-opts radical movements, like the call for decolo-

ity is the exact opposite. Our reality clearly evidences the process of defanging radical movements that occurs within academia.

Moreover, the use of the term ‘decolonisation’ removes it from its distinctly aggressive history and euphemises it into something more palatable. Decolonisation is necessarily unsettling. It is an active process of wrestling with the accepted beliefs and ways of being that we hold as a result of colonialism and disrupting this with real, visible changes. It is a process no Western university could achieve apart from ceasing to exist entirely because ultimately, the knowledge hierarchies they create and those who they designate power to are completely incompatible with this movement.

Speaking Up: Confessions of Being Chinese A

s COVID-19 cases escalate in the UK, angst and fear drove me home from the busy metropolis to the peaceful suburbs where I lived for the past five years before university. The sense of comfort and security I grew accustomed to in central London evaporated with my return, throwing me back to the homogeneity that I have known and hated.

“I feel most coloured when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” Zora Neale Hurston’s quote hits home. I felt once again back to square one, losing the shielding protection of ethnic diversity that I have grown to like at my university in London, with that Asian face that says so bluntly that you do not belong; that Asian tongue that still sounds somewhat out of place regardless how hard I try to conceal it; that Asian mind that does not seem complementary to the place I live in. It didn’t take long before the painful recollections of senior school returned. It was a time when I seriously rejected my origin, blaming it for my failure of blending in. I stuck out not only as a marginalised girl at school but also for the fact that I looked different and talked with a heavy accent. For

years, I thoroughly believed that I was ugly and unattractive and that no matter how much effort I put in, people would only ever see me as just another Ugly Asian Girl. I lived with my self-esteem impaired and even till this day I constantly find myself struggling to answer with pride and certainty, when they ask that classic question of “Where are you from?”

Undoubtedly, my identity has blurred. It is no longer so straight-

“

I lost the confidence to be proud of my heritage, to be proud of being Chinese.

“

For years, I thoroughly believed that... people would only ever see me as just another Ugly Asian Girl.

“

2nd Year, BSc Economics

forward and singular, due to my endeavours to conform to the ‘British normality’ by dampening any signs that could expose my Chinese identity: I learned to speak charismatically like a “normal” British person; I learned to casually throw in a couple of colloquial phrases to signal that I “belong”; I learned to mimic like an idiot, over stressing each syllable in attempts to make

myself sound more English, until I no longer know who I really am or maybe more importantly - who I really want to be.

The more I settle into the UK, the more I come to notice the undercurrent that runs beneath this society. I have, for the first time in my life, encountered the millions of negative connotations of the words “Chinese” and “China”, with its demonised reputation in the media and everywhere around me, and realise with a sour ache how tightly those words cling and will always cling to me. I became sensitive to those labels, so much so, that I accepted their negative connotations and

took on their “euphemism” and safe ambiguity, addressing myself by the neutral term of “Asian” as opposed to “Chinese”.

I was and probably still am ashamed of my Chinese identity – this is a fact that took me years to digest. I lost the confidence to be proud of my heritage, to be proud of being Chinese. Instead of building that boundary of indifference, I allowed each attack to slip into my soul, melting down my self-esteem.

It took me a long time to realise that the old me needed a soft pat on the head, a warm hug, to be acknowledged that she had done well and that it has indeed been very brave

“

Alina Chen

of her to pull through, to be told that she did not need an impeccable English accent or a perfect academic report to be accepted, and that more importantly, she deserved better and had the right to stand up and speak for herself – I owe myself that.

I have started doing that dirty work, digging out the pieces of shameful memories I buried, instead of clenching in my fist the sense of security of choosing what to remember.

Now forcing myself to remember every piece of it, I realise that I have the right to feel wronged and upset – I do not deserve to be treated that way, to be treated as a bore, a shy foreigner who was always the easiest target to tease, an unimportant “backup” friend. It drives me insane to think that there was once a weak and desperate little girl in me, who did not say a thing though humiliated, when I was asked with fake curiosity and genuine amusement why “Chinese people pee standing up”, or who gave into the apology

8 Opinion

“

As much as I hate the changing tide, I hate the silence even more... Asian people don’t speak up enough and are not represented in the media enough

could happen and I would make the topic of another trivialised news article that casually brings up another

vicious hate crime against Asians.

As much as I hate the changing tide, I hate the silence even more. I am fed up with the silence - the silence that I myself am so familiar with.

Asian people don’t speak up enough and are not represented in the media enough: we stay silent when we are spat on in the street; we stay silent when we get pointed at; we stay silent when we are rejected to get on the bus; we stay silent when one of us, a Singaporean student, Jonathan Mok, was seriously injured after being beaten up on Oxford Street after being told “We don’t want coronavirus in this country”. His story that enraged the Asian community barely made the headline and his attacker was not even charged with racially aggravated assault.

However, realistically, no matter how triggering everything has been,

we can’t always live in anger and fear, because it’s simply debilitating. I cannot go out everyday with anxiety and apprehension crawling at the back of my mind, and then shrink back into the shell that I had only just broken out of. People who hate will always find a new reason to hate but they are the ones that should be ashamed. At the age of 19, I can barely say that I have everything figured out, I still from time to time dip into identity crises with utter confusion, but I see a new path opening up in front of me, offering me the chance to make my own step towards the racial utopia that I have always imagined - by speaking up, by claiming my identity and embracing life.

“The chance to

make my own step towards the racial utopia that I have always imagined [is] by speaking up, by claiming my identity and embracing life.

“

of getting on public transport; I was scared whenever I made eye contact with a not-so-smiley white stranger; I was scared that something bad

“

without batting an eyelid, when my “best friend” mistakenly referred to my mum as “a fucking Chinese woman” when my mum answered my phone with her broken English.

Shame however is not something that easily blows over, just as I began to embrace my identity in my first year of university, the familiar feeling has once again descended with my return to this ludicrously homogeneous place during this special time. I saw with a paranoid mind the stares, the scrutiny, the gossip, the frowns, the disdain all of which I thought had already disappeared, peak so naturally due to the fact that the virus which wrecked the world originated from China. I realised that I was in fact very scared.

I was scared out and about in public with my family; I was scared

Wednesday 30 September 2020 | The Beaver

Slacktivism: Do #BlackLivesMatter to LSE?

Britain’s economy, one of the biggest in the world, was built on the backs of slaves and colonial rule in much of the Global South.

the state welfare system but rarely mentioning his eugenicist motivations. The Department of Anthropology’s library was also, until 2020, named after a racist, in this case the anthropologist Charles Seligman.

LSE’s official attainment gap in 2018 (for home undergraduate students to achieve a merit) was 8.7% for Black students and 8.3 % for Asian students compared to their white peers. Once the data are broken down, taking into account gender and different ethnicities, a far larger inequality is clear.

Research undertaken by Dr Sara Camacho Felix, using LSE data on module attainment from 2013/14 to 2017/18, illustrates there is a 17.1% gap between UK white male students and UK Black female undergraduate students and, for nonUK undergraduate female Pakistani and Bangladeshi students, a gap of 12.1% at distinction level.

Despite entering on the same merit (some may argue more, considering the systemic racism encountered along the way), Black students are on average less likely to achieve to the same standard as their white peers. Beyond the student experience, race-related issues take a more sinister edge in light of contemporary hiring practices at the school.

For example, the one Black professor at the LSE is a ‘visiting

“

[LSE's] use of the hashtag of Black Lives Matter is a dangerous act of ‘performative allyship’. This one-time declaration on social media (providing a virtual pat on the back) not only rings hollow, but elides the fact that the school is a site of institutionalised racism.

“

“

professor’, nothing more than an honorary title, meaning the school has effectively appointed zero Black professors. Cleaners (who are majority Black) are not given the same working conditions as other staff members, essentially treated as second class employees.

Fairly recently, the School admitted a white nationalist student and gave tenure to a race scientist claiming Black women to be ‘less attractive’ than other women.

Considering the institutionalised racism prevalent in the LSE, their use of the hashtag of Black Lives Matter is a dangerous act of ‘performative allyship’. This onetime declaration on social media, providing a virtual pat on the back, not only rings hollow, but elides the fact that the school is a site of institutionalised racism. A simple move to start targeting the latter problem would be to decentre whiteness by recognising the plethora of nonwhite figures who play a central role in LSE’s history of excellence.

From the first Black professor in the UK, Sir Arthur Lewis, to the late Thandika Mkandawire, Black academics helped make LSE what it is today; celebrating their work seems an easy choice over memori-

“

Racism can seem subtle if it only presents as a distant news report or something you stumble upon in history. But for people of colour, for Black people in the UK, racism is an everyday reality.

“

T

he barbarous murder of George Floyd has sparked monumental acts of solidarity transatlantically. The upsurge of outrage has shown just how thin the façade of respectability thrown up to cover Britain’s colonial and racist past has worn. Rising anger drew fresh attention to cases of police brutality against Black people in the UK, and saw to it that statues of former slave traders and colonial figures (finally) mer their demise. Digital organisation fit for a pandemic has led to thousands of protesters in British cities taking the knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

With the upsurge of anti-racist rhetoric, LSE was quick to respond on social media by hashtagging Black Lives Matter and declaring that challenging racial inequality is part of its ‘founding purpose’. At time of writing, this remains the only comment on George Floyd’s death and the anti-racism movement the School has made. It seems glaringly obvious that racism will persist in a country which fueled its industrialisation through the commodification of slave labour.

Behind the seemingly harmless trade of sugar, tobacco, and cotton lurks the very sinister truth that Britain’s economy, one of the biggest in the world, was built on the backs of slaves and colonial rule in much of the Global South.

What action has been taken by LSE to address its legacies of colonialism and racism? The reference to ‘challenging racial inequality’ being a ‘founding purpose’ nods to the work and socialist values of the founders of the school, members of the Fabian Society. But the Fabians were also proponents of eugenics, with many subscribing to the idea that progress within society can come from decreased reproduction amongst those with “undesirable genes”. Yet, the School continue to unquestioningly celebrate these founders.

The lack of a critical eye on our history doesn’t stop there. The Beveridge Cafe is named after the fifth director of the LSE, William Beveridge, lauding his work on

Originally published online on 18 June 2020. Almas Talib (MSc Social & Cultural Psychology) and Gen England (MSc Social Anthropology) were at time of first publication, both part of the Decolonising LSE Col-

“

Almas Talib & Gen England Decolonising LSE

alising known eugenicists in bricks and mortar. Other universities are already starting the renaming process.

To avoid merely adorning the school’s walls with Black academics of the past, LSE must also nurture Black academics of the future.

School departments must decolonise their curricula to create an environment where its academically excellent students of colour can achieve to the same extent as their white counterparts. This could begin with the incorporation of critical race theory; intellectual work which acknowledges how colonialism shapes our past, present, and future; validating people of colour as knowledge producers; and recognising their experiences.

This benefit is twofold, as undiversified curricula are a loss to the wider intellectual project of the school that dilute the richness and variety of thought, narrowing our intellectual horizons and abilities to think creatively or to see the ways in which the world could be different. Decolonising curricula would thus not only be a move towards justice for students of colour, it would benefit the School as a whole.

In our time at LSE, we have seen some progress towards the school becoming a more equita-

ble institution. However, this has mostly been down to the tireless campaigning, dialogue, and resistance of unpaid students and staff mobilising through movements such as Decolonising LSE, Seligman Must Fall, and Justice for LSE Cleaners. The Seligman Library is now ‘The Old Anthropology Library’, the cleaners treatment is still far from adequate or on a par with other LSE staff, but they have, at least, been brought in-house. In the face of COVID-19, Justice for LSE Cleaners continues to work tirelessly to fight the treatment of cleaners as second class employees.

Decolonising LSE supports such campaigns, and provides a space for students to talk about decolonising curricula, to discover decolonial thinkers, and to learn how to navigate colonial, academic spaces from one another. The necessity of these campaigns demonstrates the lack of care or concern for Black lives from LSE. Surface level activism or ‘slacktivism’ not only normalises, sanctions, and legitimises LSE’s institutionalised racism but it also plays into a wider discourse of the supposed ‘subtlety’ of racism in the UK. Racism can seem subtle if it only presents as a distant news report or something you stumble upon in history. But for people of colour, for Black people in the UK, racism is an everyday reality. When your every movement is circumscribed by systemic racism, ‘subtle’ is far from how you would describe such oppression.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that the greatest stumbling block towards freedom was the white moderate, more devoted to “order” than justice. LSE must listen to us and work to decolonise the institution. LSE must improve the conditions of cleaners, ensure it’s hiring practices increase the presence of Black faculty members, and decolonise their curricula. If #BlackLivesMatter to LSE, they need to take over the anti-racist fight that students and staff have been leading for years. Frankly, we’re tired.

Features

Features Editors Marianne Hii Yasmina O'Sullivan

9

Young Academics Express Anxiety Over Job Security and Surging Workload (cont'd)

of us will have to “ Many leave academia.

Calling for financial cuts to be made first at the top of the institution, the petition states, “we cannot throw the most precarious off the dock – the academic colleagues who will most likely get pushed out of the academic sector, the non-academic colleagues who will face increasing uncertainty, and the students who will struggle to complete without funding.”

In addition, permanent staff members called for security for their fixed-term counterparts in an open letter signed by 164 staff members at the time of writing. The letter asserts that “now is not the time for the university to shed staff: as we are all faced with increasing workloads and new educational challenges, we need as many education experts as possible working together to manage the monumental shifts in teaching and learning.”

Fears had become reality for some ex-staff The Beaver spoke to.

“Due to the… SMC’s position on financial loss my contract was not renewed,’ one ex-fellow said. “My department had earlier verbally communicated a renewal for another academic year… As a result of the earlier verbal offer of renewal of my contract I had turned down the option of convening a course in another university’s summer school program (which is running online). This puts me in a precarious position as I lost out on income that I would need to survive in the UK without a job.”

Other staff who were not re-hired complained that verbal commitments from their departments had prevented them from searching for further employment in the spring, a crucial period when academics are recruited for the upcoming academic year.

Another staff member spoke to the inhospitable academic job market awaiting those whose contracts were not renewed. “There are hiring freezes everywhere, including at LSE, and chances are that a lot less money will also be floating around as well for postdocs. Scholarships, grants, etc … Many of us will have to leave academia.”

Staff told The Beaver that they feel these redundancies symbolised a betrayal of staff, considering how fixed-term teaching staff had contributed to the university’s increased 2020 National Student Survey score.

In addition, they felt that staff’s contribution to LSE’s becoming one of the first universities to begin online teaching back in March had been overlooked and unappreciated.

Young academics at LSE related to The Beaver their feelings of anger and insecurity, as well as a feeling that they had been trapped in a precarious situation by factors outside of their control. The culmination of these issues, many staff said, has left LSE’s young academics—who, according to some, are disproportionately women and people of colour— feeling anxious and uncertain about their future in academia.

Increased workload infringing on academic research Staff who spoke to The Beaver described their worry that contract non-renewals, the transition to hybrid teaching, and increased undergraduate cohorts would result in increased workloads. The Eden Center and ‘Curriculum Shift 2020’ have provided guidance to staff in their transition to hybrid, in-person and online teaching. When asked at the virtual town hall about how teachers could approach hybrid teaching and manage both in-person and online students, Fung admitted that teachers would need to test what works when it comes to group learning and discussions.

One staff member told The Beaver that they were “worried that with the LSE-wide hiring freeze on Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs), the teaching load of Fellows will be increased. The tone of communications from the department has been that we need to pull together and all contribute more (teaching, admin, pas-

toral support). … asking Fellows to de-prioritise our research will make it harder for us to stay in academia.”

However, a trade union representative contradicted the staff member's claim, telling The Beaver that they had not heard concerns around increased workloads. They admitted though that that “things are changing, something that I say today might not be valid later on.”

However, without even considering additional roles, fixed-term staff fear that their academic work and future job security will be endangered by growing responsibilities—resulting in less time for crucial research— under the guise of pulling together to support the institution. One staff member warned that their “department has historically not been good about ensuring that Fellows are not over-burdened, [for example] a number of Fellows are course convenors and have redesigned syllabi as part of our jobs, but our teaching hours have not been reduced … I worry that this precedent will mean for the purpose of the coronavirus response we will be treated as permanent faculty, but without any corresponding increase in professional stability.”

I worry that...we will be treated as permanent faculty, but without any...increase in professional stability.

“

“

Anxiety over job security An atmosphere of anxiety was evident in the pre-term staff town hall on September 2. Participants questioned whether they would receive notice well in advance of redundancy, to give them time to seek other employment. Andrew Young, LSE’s Chief Operating Officer, confirmed that normal and fair time would be given, but stressed that he hoped that such redundancies would not occur.

He emphasised that the school had taken precautions such as an annual auto-increments delay and a hiring freeze in order to avoid such an outcome. This broad worry among staff was confirmed by a trade union representative who spoke with The Beaver: “Of course, people are worried,” the representative said, “I mean, some people became redundant. For the class teachers, as far as I know, there might have been some redundancies already, some contracts might not have been renewed.” In characterising the atmosphere amongst those represented by the union, the representative was clear, “this is what the feeling is: stress.”

A number of staff expressed concern to The Beaver for staff members on fixed-term contracts, many of whom feared that their contract renewals had been jeopardized due to the School’s hiring freeze. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, in the 2018/19 academic year 59% of staff at LSE were on fixed-term contracts, and 41% were permanent staff. Fixed-term contracts offer staff little stability as they are renewed for a maximum of 3-years, but can also be maintained at an annual basis. As The Beaver reported over summer, staff on fixedterm contracts have organised under the ‘LSE COVID Solidarity Campaign’ to raise the alarm about the vulnerability of LSE’s majority-fixedterm staff, particularly after concerns that some members of staff had been denied contract renewals without prior warning, and that some verbal guarantees of contract renewal did not result in new contracts once COVID-19 upended preparations for the new academic year.

LSE COVID Solidarity Cam-

paign, a staff-organised campaign group, organised a change.org petition, which at the time of writing has 489 signatures. The petition first calls on the university to secure and extend contracts for “all academic and non-academic precarious workers at the university until the Covid-19 crisis is over for a guaranteed minimum of 2 years,” followed by further appeals available on their website.

“

Continued from cover story.

Solutions to Financial Struggle LSE has adopted several policies to tackle their current financial struggle. The first is a delay to annual auto-increment payments which, as Pro-Director (Faculty Development) Eric Neumayer and Chief Operating Officer Andrew Young explained in an email to staff, “means that the pay increase that would traditionally happen at the end of [August] for staff ... will now be applied to pay in November 2020.” When asked in the townhall if the school was planning to cancel pay increments or delay, Young expressed the school's desire to reverse the delay in November but warned that this depended on the school’s financial condition. (see "Government A-Level Scandal Leads to 300 More Freshers at LSE...", pg. 3)

3 Years of Lessons Learned at LSE A recent BSc Government graduate reflects on the advice he would give his younger self.

Adnan Raja BSc Government '20

H

aving finished my BSc Government at LSE and with time to reflect, I thought of some advice I could pass on to an 18 year old me. This is by no means a definitive or exhaustive list but a collection of thoughts and insights I wish I knew at the start.

1. Accept that you’re not going to know everything - probably the biggest shock to me upon arriving at university was thinking that there would be a defined amount of content I could learn and I would ‘know everything’ for that topic (as was my experience during A-Levels). This might

be more true of qualitative modules. Despite putting a lot of effort in my work it felt like I wasn’t doing enough because there was always an argument, a paper, or something someone would point to and I would think ‘why didn’t I come across that? I didn’t prepare enough’. It is an iterative process, your understanding of particular topics will be deepened once you have covered more content even if they aren’t directly linked.

2. Become comfortable with feeling stupid – when something doesn’t make sense in a lecture or a class, do not panic. There’s going to be plenty of moments you feel stupid for not understanding something; welcome to LSE. This part of the process will definitely make you a more resilient person.

The adjustment can be a shock, especially coming from an environment of acing papers at A-Level.

3. It is a marathon, not a sprint.

You don’t need to have it all figured out in a month, or a term, or even an academic year – the point is you try things and learn from that.

4. Treat university like a job - an analogy I like to use is that classes, lectures, and office hours are your ‘meetings’ so come prepared. Define your own working hours and see if your productivity increases.

Try to experiment with different systems and see what works for you.

5. Look at the lecture slides beforehand - Especially for quant students.

6. Watch lectures twice - once to

Additionally, the School has launched voluntary schemes through which staff can reduce their hours, take voluntary unpaid leave, or voluntarily leave. The scheme’s guidance for managers states that “these schemes are entirely voluntary and are staff-led. This means that, whilst you should make sure that staff are aware of these schemes, you should not approach individual staff directly unless they have already expressed an interest in a scheme.” According to one trade union representative who spoke to The Beaver, they had not heard of any instances where staff volunteered for the scheme.

Finally, The Beaver understands that the university has imposed a conditional hiring freeze. According to LSE, contract extensions and new hiring proposals—including for key teaching roles such as GTAs and Fellows—are still being approved and going ahead. However, as noted, some GTAs and Fellows described to The Beaver cases where verbal contract offers in the spring were not translated into contracts in the summer, leaving some members of staff unable to continue at their LSE posts while having been able to job-search in the crucial spring hiring window.

The university communicated that it was difficult to determine the precise number of contracts that have not been renewed, as many of these may not necessarily have been related to the freeze, such as research contracts that were due to end. When asked for comment, an LSE spokesperson said, “despite the significant financial challenges presented by COVID-19, LSE is resolutely focused on the education of our students, supporting the wellbeing of our community and preserving jobs.

The School is continuing to employ the necessary staff to ensure excellent teaching and research continues to take place. This includes substantial additional resources for departments to hire academic staff in response to the increased size of this year's undergraduate cohort."

Colin Vanelli contributed to reporting.

10 Features of contact for you and if you have any LSE queries they are a good place to start.

12. Don’t learn for the exam there are some parts of the course that a lecturer will teach you for the sake of education. Throughout the year adopt an attitude of wanting to learn for the sake of learning. Exam season will be the time to refine and prepare for the exam – it doesn’t hurt to learn something new.

13. Take an outside module - it’s an enriching opportunity to learn something completely different definitely enriched my university experience. For example, I chose PH101 Logic in my second year and it was one of the most enjoyable modules I took. Having three GV modules that year was quite heavy so the switch to a completely different discipline was refreshing.

It also piqued a lot of areas of interest, some of which I still reflect on today.

14. Don’t try to “game” your degree - don’t take a course based on how many firsts are given and therefore how ‘easy’ it is. Many students fall into the trap of taking first year courses like AC102/103 given the high proportion of firsts and end up hating it. Pick modules you like, don’t expect the grades to come easy, you are at the LSE after all.

15. For students living away from home: try to live as close to campus as you can - a walk or bus ride away if possible (finances permitting)– I went from living in Bankside house (20 mins walk away from LSE) to Zone 2 (30 minutes via underground) to Zone 4 (60 minutes via underground)

and each year I hated my commute a lot more. In general it is more liberating to be less reliant on the tube and will be easier to manage your time. Two hours commute daily is two hours wasted.

16. Go to a public lecture.

17. Don’t be tricked by the seemingly sparse timetable – 4 modules with a lecture and a class for each, that is 8 – 16 hours of your time i.e. two days of a Monday to Friday 9 to 5. That leaves three whole days and a weekend of time.

18. Contribute in classes - a class can go one of two ways excruciating silence and forced participation OR there is lively discussion. Either way you benefit from participating as you can chat practically 1-to-1 with an expert teacher, with real time feedback or do so with your peers.

19. Don’t think people know they have their sh*t together: they do not - you might be struggling with the workload for a few weeks and look around thinking ‘damn, everyone else has it together, why don’t I?’ In time you will realise some students genuinely are better prepared, but in general most of us are trying to muddle our way through it while dealing with our own problems.

20. Don’t half commit to a society - go all in, it is the best way to maximise your time - one of my biggest regrets was that I didn’t commit to the Debate Society as much as I could have. There were so many events that I opted not to join in. Looking back I wish I engaged more rather than just dipping my toe in.

21. Don’t just stick your degree

“ Don’t just stick your degree cohort, branch out – by this I mean make an effort to make friends with people on different degree programmes and at different universities.

“

your notes and once for understanding.

7. Go to lectures in person don’t fall into the habit of telling yourself you’ll catch-up 8. Use all the resources LSE has to offer – these are just a few of the resources that provide incredible help. Keep a lookout for anything that might be useful: • LSE LIFE – you’ll be a master of referencing, essay writing, notetaking and so much more • LSE Careers • Department/society mentoring schemes • The LSE Students' Union 9. Don’t buy into the finance/ law/consulting career hype straight away – this isn’t a knock on those professions at all. Instead it is wise to look at a wide variety of career options, given the doors LSE can open for you, and explore what is possible.

10. Treat office hours as another lecture or class i.e. mandatory every week – this is your chance to have some 1-to-1 time with some of the brightest minds. Use the opportunity to deepen your understanding of the module or even to further your interest in that area of academia in general. Either way, build a rapport with the lecturers and class teachers and use them to the fullest extent you can.

11. Build a good relationship with your academic advisor – part of my (relative) success in managing my way through the contours of LSE has been because of my academic advisor. Their function isn’t strictly defined, mine tended to help me understand university regulations and act as a source of wisdom. They are a useful point

Wednesday 30 September 2020 | The Beaver

cohort, branch out – by this I mean make an effort to make friends with people on different degree programmes and at different universities. Look out for inter-university society collaborations and other avenues to develop and meet new people.

22. Find a study space you like on campus and get there early.

23. Get to grips with degree regulations and how your degree is classified - understand the difference between a half-module and a full-module, how they are treated and what exactly you need for a first (or the grade you are aiming for). This can add a level of clarity and focus. All this information is easy to find on the LSE Calendar and if you are still uncertain then

you can always speak to your academic advisor.

24. Understand that a lot of teachers at university are not full time, it’s only part of their job – most of your class teachers at LSE will be PhD students as opposed to dedicated teaching professionals at your sixth-form or secondary school. Therefore what to expect from a class will be different. By this I mean that it is more your responsibility to ensure you get out of it what you need. Don’t expect extensive monitoring of your understanding of the content - it is your job to seek clarification.

25. Routine. Routine. Routine – this isn’t LSE specific but a general axiom for managing a busy life.

26. Look at in-text references and bibliography for more papers on a topic – may sound obvious to some but something I only picked up in Lent Term of my first year and is now my primary way of finding literature beyond the reading list.

27. Take time for yourself and your hobbies.

The author's 'further reading' section will be amended to the online version of this article.

Course Choice Reductions Lead to Disappointment for Some Though a range of departments have taken different approaches to selecting course choice options this year, many students have been left disappointed by reductions in their respective departments' offered modules.

Stephanie Cheung

Features Deputy Editor

W

hen the LSE opened its course enrolments for the 2020/21 academic year in July, many reported what appeared to be a significantly lower number of modules available in comparison to the previous academic year.

The spread of COVID-19 has undoubtedly impacted the way teaching is conducted, with lectures moving online and an option for students to take online classes.

As such, some departments have chosen to reduce course choices, citing “health precautions” and “logistical problems” caused by the virus.

Many students, particularly third years, have expressed disappointment over the drastic reduction of course choices in some departments. In the Department of Government, while the number of first and second year courses did not change, eleven out of twentysix third year courses were suspended. This figure excludes the number of courses that were permanently withdrawn. Similarly, in the Department of International Relations, thirteen third year modules were available in contrast to twenty last year. In total, and excluding the Language Centre, 82 modules across all departments and years were suspended this aca-

demic year.

The lack of course offerings in some departments have led to courses filling up very fast. Students in Government and International Relations reported that modules ran out of space in the matter of hours, with some having to email their department heads in order to be able to take the modules they require for their degree programme. When asked, one student described the course selection process as “chaos,” with course spaces filling up so fast that “when I next checked the page, all the courses I actually needed to take for one of my papers were unavailable”. Another student revealed that some students considering a Master’s programme at the LSE have been impacted by the limited course choices and how quickly they filled up. They can no longer pursue their niche due to modules being full or cancelled.

However, the reduction in course choices was not common to all departments, with some departments either increasing the number of course options or continuing to suspend courses that have already been suspended in the previous year. For example, the number of suspended modules in the Department of History was in line with previous years, and an additional module was each added to both the third year undergraduate and postgraduate options. When ques-

2020 Number of Suspended Undergraduate Courses in Selected Departments, according to LSE Calendar

tioned, the Department of History reported that “these courses are part of our ongoing commitment to diversity and decolonise our curriculum,” and that “during challenging times, it is even more important to understand and address inequalities in our world.”

The Department of Management also reported that the five undergraduate modules suspended this year have also been suspended since last year.

With regards to the reductions in the number of modules on offer this year, an LSE spokesperson provided the following statement: “In response to COVID-19,

we have had to make significant changes to teaching and learning in Michaelmas Term, including a temporary reduction in the number of courses being offered. This decision has been made to ensure the health and safety of students and staff as well as equality of access to teaching and learning for all.

“Due to social distancing guidelines, we have reduced class sizes.

We are also aware that students may not always be able to attend campus this term, and so are aiming - where possible - to run each seminar or class at least twice to ensure students can join in person or online where necessary. “Taken

together, these factors have resulted in fewer available teaching spaces and greater pressure on timetables, which unfortunately requires a reduction in the number of courses on offer.

“This has not been an easy decision to make, and we know that students appreciate the variety of courses on offer. Departments have considered carefully which courses to continue offering and have tried to keep course offerings varied to enable students to shape their own degree programmes as much as possible.”

(Certain departments have been omitted from the graph due to spacing issues).

11

www.beaveronline.co.uk | @thebeaveronline

Email us: beaver@beaveronline.co.uk

An LSE Student's Guide to Quarantine From arranging transportation from the airport, to eating, exploring London virtually, keeping social, and taking care of yourself, this guide tells you how to navigate quarantine as a LSE student.

Marianne Hii Features Editor

T

hough this year’s first weeks at LSE will definitely look different, it isn’t the case that social isolation has to be completely miserable. We at The Beaver have compiled a guide on how to make the most of your quarantine during your first 14 days in London if you’ve come from a country where travel restrictions apply.

As travel restrictions are subject to change, ensure you understand whether you need to quarantine before your trip.

Transportation You’re allowed to use either public transportation or taxis to reach your quarantine destination from the airport. It is now mandatory to wear face coverings on public transportation and taxis.

If you are using public transportation, easy options for paying include using a contactless card, ordering a Visitor Oyster card before your arrival, or buying an Oyster card if you are using the Tube or Tfl Rail (except West Drayton to Reading). A Visitor Oyster card costs £5, plus postage. If you do end up taking the Tube from the airport, getting an Oyster card for £5 once in London seems to be the best option.

You can check if your Tube route has stair-free access beforehand to plan your journey.

Checking into your hall Familiarise yourself with your hall’s check-in process beforehand, especially as you may need to book a check-in slot. Research information on how check-in to LSE halls as well as other LSE associated halls.

See what’s provided in each hall to plan which items you’re going to have to pre-order or pack for your arrival.

Food You’ve reached your destination, but now you’re wondering how you’re going to feed yourself for the next two weeks. Rest assured you do not have to rely on a stash of pot noodles you’ve packed in your luggage. If you have flatmates who are not isolating, you could kindly ask if they’d be willing to help you buy food. Keep in mind that you generally form a household with those you share a kitchen and bathroom with or those in your flat. As such, you would be allowed to use those facilities when isolating, provided you follow any cleaning up requirements.

You can order meals online (from the likes of Uber Eats, Deliveroo, amongst many others), and check whether your hall reception can bring those up to your door. If you don’t have a UK bank card yet, ensure your card is authorized for international transactions.

You can also order groceries online, and these can similarly

be brought up to your door. Just make sure to do your shopping in advance as high demand for home deliveries may mean waiting a few days or more for a delivery slot.

Here are some popular options: Amazon Fresh has free sameday delivery for Prime members with a minimum grocery spend of £40. If your order is below that, the delivery fee is £3.99. You can sign up for a 6 months free student trial for Prime, after which the student subscription fee is £3.99 a month.

Waitrose’s home delivery has a minimum spending requirement of £40, with free delivery. If you do your grocery shopping in bulk and don’t intend to get a delivery pass, this seems to be the cheapest option.

Sainsbury’s home delivery has a minimum spend of £25, though orders under £40 are charged a relatively steep fee of £7. Orders from £40 to £100 have a delivery fee range from 50p to £7, with orders over £100 delivered for free on weekdays after 2pm. Delivery passes offer free delivery for orders over £40 anytime or from Tuesday to Thursday Prices range from £10 to £60 depending on whether your pass is an Anytime or Midweek one, and whether it is a 3, 6, or 12 month pass.

Whilst Tesco does not have a minimum spend, it adds £4 to orders below £40. The delivery fee is £4.50 or £5.50 if your order comes from a ‘customer fulfilment centre.’

You can also sign up for the Delivery Saver subscription service, which costs £7.99 a month, and offers free home delivery for orders above £40 and adds a £4 charge for orders below £40. Please note the number of new subscriptions is limited.

Morrisons has a minimum spend of £40, with a delivery fee reportedly varying. Delivery passes offer free delivery for orders over £40, and you can choose for an Anytime or Midweek (TuesdayThursday) pass. You can also choose between monthly, 6 month, and annual passes. Prices range from £5 to £65 pounds.

Asda charges £3 for orders under 40, with delivery fees varying.

On testing, the most expensive delivery fee charged was £6.5 and the cheapest only £1. Currently, delivery passes are not available.

Keeping busy and social!

Attend LSE’s famous public lectures that are currently taking place online, as well any virtual Welcome events hosted by your Department .

LSESU is also hosting a range of social activities and events you can attend from the comfort of your bed. Check out the Facebook pages of all the societies you’re interested in to keep updated about their virtual events and give-it-a-go sessions. If living in halls, join your hall’s official Facebook group to meet others through virtual social events.

You can keep active and exercise in your own room- pre-order an exercise mat and attend one of LSESU’s Active Lifestyle classes for free via Zoom.

If you feel the urge to explore London-or really, anywhere in the world-, check whether your intended tourist attraction offers virtual tours. Some operas and theatre companies have also released productions online.

Take care of your wellbeing Moving abroad to start university can be a challenging process. Doing so during a pandemic whilst being required to quarantine doesn’t make this any easier, so it’s important to check-in with yourself and make sure you’re doing okay.

Especially during isolation, making sure you’re eating a healthy and balanced diet, getting enough sleep, and keeping in contact with your friends and family can go a long way to maintaining a sense of normalcy. Don’t feel too pressured to join too many virtual events if you’re feeling Zoom burnout, and take some time out for yourself.

LSE has teamed up with Mind, the mental health charity, to deliver workshops about how to manage wellbeing and mental health throughout university. Sessions are open to all undergraduates and held online. LSE also is offering online appointments with the Student Counselling Service which can extend for up to six sessions.

Running a Society Becomes a Full-Time Job during COVID-19 Pandemic

The Beaver interviewed LSESU society heads to investigate their methods of adjusting society operations in a year filled with uncertainty.

Beatriz Silva Features Staff Writer

T

he new academic year is off to a very unconventional start. With lectures moving online and in-person classes taking place under strict social distancing measures, there are very little certainties to hold on to as the year begins. Student activities are being significantly impacted by the ongoing pandemic and are facing a whole new (and undoubtedly unprecedented) range of challenges.

The Beaver spoke to heads of different societies to get a sense of how student communities are adjusting to the new reality.

Student societies are an essential part of university life. Run by dedicated students who work hard to offer their peers the vital university experiences- the making of important friendships, athletic life, creative nourishment, or dozens of symposiums- committee work typically takes much commitment.

However, this year students are reporting the workload to be far more intense.

Presidents of different societies started reaching out to freshers in early July because many incoming students had questions about what their first year at university would look like. While in previous years the Raising and Giving Society would sell RAG Bands providing

access to nightly Freshers’ week events, this year the RAG Band was cancelled. RAG instead hosted Zoom calls to discuss anything LSE or London-related with new students throughout the summer and organised initiatives to attract freshers.

Other societies, like LSESU Amnesty International, were also extremely active, putting up campaigns such as the “Year Against Racial Discrimination” initiative, at a time in which student communities are usually quiet. As such, while societies continued to promote their work actively on social media, significant bureaucratic work was being done in the background.

The big question that haunts societies is whether to go fully online or implement a hybrid system, which blends online and in-person events. In trying to determine the best course of action, societies

spent a considerable amount of time trying to understand new regulations and seeking guidance from the Student’s Union. Even though it is widely understood that the SU had to restructure its own operations in the space of a few months and was responsive in the beginning of the summer, a “hot hot mess” ensued as September approached, as reported by an interviewee. Students disclosed that the SU took weeks to reply to emails and often provided vague responses. This seemed to be because the Student's Union simply did not (and does not) have the answers themselves.

Consequently, students were alone in figuring out how to organise flagship events online or deciding whether to postpone some activities to Lent Term. This has required long committee meetings over Zoom and planning a range of back-ups in case the initial plan

does not work. For many, uncertainty has been worse than finding out that everything will be online, as the lack of information and contradictory messages unnecessarily raised hopes of in-person events before new restrictions were announced. For example, despite having asked student societies whether they would be interested in booking the marquees outside two of LSE’s main buildings, societies later found out that these spaces could only be used by departments after all. As best explained

by Poorvika Mehra, President of LSESU Amnesty International, “No one wants to be the society without in-person events if that ends up being possible.”

Sports and creative societies are facing their own unique struggles.

Women’s Rugby reported having lost 50% of the AU funding it usually receives, putting at risk many of its activities. Mariana Albu-

querque, the President of Women’s Rugby, informed The Beaver that in-person activities are essential for their student community but that the SU’s advice was not very helpful - especially in relation to funding, with “Find Sponsors” being the only advice given. Meanwhile, Josie Stephens from the LSESU Drama Society informed us that risk assessment forms for Lent Term rehearsals and plays were already being prepared, since once in-person events are permitted, LSE rooms and venues are expected to be limited and booked in record times. This is leading some societies to consider booking nonLSE spaces for Lent Term events, which will require an extra investment societies do not usually have to make.

Despite all of this, these students are more committed than ever to making the best out of the current situation. People involved with societies choose to be because they care about these communities, which enriches their own experience at LSE. Freshers were not abandoned to figure out university life for themselves this year, rather quite the opposite. Regardless of the frustration and obstacles they are still facing, societies are more active than ever before and in constant communication with freshers.

This may set a powerful precedent and ultimately improve students’ experiences for years to come.

12 Features

Wednesday 30 September 2020 | The Beaver

A Guide to LSE Undergraduate Halls The Beaver has compiled a summary of the nearby supermarkets, cafes and restaurants, Tube stations, local attractions, and green spaces for each LSE undergraduate hall.

Marianne Hii Features Editor

W

e’ve decided to list a few nearby amenities around LSE undergraduate Halls to help guide you through your first weeks of student life. Though these lists are by no means exhaustive, we hope these snapshots give you some inspiration to look for your own favorite spots to grab a bite or relax.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic may mean we can’t eat out or watch a play exactly as we used to, we keenly await the day when we can do so once more. In the meantime, take note of all the green places and walking routes near your halls.

(All lengths of time stated are walking length from the Hall.)

The below halls are run by LSE Residential Services: Bankside House Supermarkets: A Co-op, Tesco, Sainsburys, and Marks and Spencer are all within a 5 minute’s walk or less.

Cafes/Restaurants: Quick bites such as Itsu, Leon, and Starbucks are minutes away. If you feel like treating yourself, Vapiano, Tonkotsu, and Lin’s Restaurant & Bar are right around the corner.

Closest Tube: London Bridge, Southwark.

Local attractions: The Tate Modern (3 mins) is right on your doorstep, with modern and contemporary art for your viewing pleasure. A stroll along the nearby Southbank affords you a clear view of St. Paul’s Cathedral. A host of other cultural, artistic, and historic centres are nearby, including the National Theatre (15 mins), Shakespeare’s Globe (4 mins), and Borough Market (9 mins).

Green spaces nearby: Tate Modern Garden (3 mins), Leathermarket Gardens (18 mins).

Carr-Saunders Hall Supermarkets: Tesco (5 mins), Sainsbury (6 mins).

Cafes/Restaurants: Being a 6 minute walk from Tottenham Court Road, there is no scarcity of places to eat. Nearby spots include Franco Manca and Honest Burgers.

Other finds are Passyunk Avenue (if you’re craving cheesesteaks), Brazilian Gourmet, and Fish Bone.

Closest Tube: Warren Street, Euston.

Local attractions: Being in Central London, many attractions are a short walk away. The British Museum is 14 minutes away, and the West End a 20 minute walk. Tottenham Court Road is a well-known street to shop (or windowshop!).

A more niche attraction is the Cartoon Museum (9 mins).

Green space nearby: Regent’s Park (20-25 mins).

Northumberland House Supermarkets: Tesco (1 min), Marks and Spencer (3 mins) Cafes/Restaurants: Nearby you’ll find a Prezzo, Little Frankie’s , Pizza Express, and Herman Ze German. If you ever fancy treating yourself to afternoon tea, try Af-

ternoon Tea at Corinthia London.

The Cafe on the Square is also a popular eating spot right in the heart of London.

Closest Tube: Charing Cross, Embankment Local attractions: Northumberland House is right next to Trafalgar Square, which is lined with galleries and monuments and surrounded by touristic locations such as Picadilly Circus and the Strand.

The National Gallery, which hosts over 2,300 paintings, is only a 5 minutes walk away. The Covent Garden Market is also a 12 minute walk away.

Green space nearby: Victoria Embankment Gardens (3 mins).

Passfield Hall Supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury (both about 10 mins away), Waitrose (8 mins).

Cafes/Restaurants: With WingWing Kripsy Chicken, Bloomsbury Coffee House, Taste of Greece, and China House as nearby eats, you won’t be going hungry anytime soon.

Closest Tube: Euston Square, Euston.

Local attractions: Passfield Hall is in Bloomsbury – an area with great literary history. The British Museum and the British Library are both a 10 minute walk away.

The Grant Museum of Zoology, an 8 minute walk away, is the last zoology museum in London. Senate House Library is also 8 minutes away, and as with the library of the University of London, LSE students have full access.

Green spaces nearby: Tavistock Square Gardens , Gordon Square (both 2 mins), and Russell Square, the largest square in Bloomsbury, is only 8 minutes away.

Rosebery Hall Supermarkets: Sainsbury (3 mins), Tesco (7 mins) Cafes/Restaurants: Santoré-Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria, Coin Laundry (seasonal British food), Macellaio RC Exmouth Market (Italian), Sweet Patisserie, The Wilmington Public House and Dining.

Closest Tube: Angel, King’s Cross/ St Pancras, Farringdon Local attractions: Rosebery Hall is in Islington, and the closest attraction is Sadler’s Wells Theatre, 3 mins away. The Barbican Centre is 22 minutes walk away, and a performing arts centre holding art exhibitions, film screenings, and theatre performances. It also has the second biggest conservatory in London, with more than 1,500 plants and trees.

Green spaces nearby: Spa Green Garden (2 mins), Northampton Square Garden (5 mins).

The below halls are run by Urbanest: Urbanest Westminster Bridge Supermarkets: Tesco (6 mins), Sainsbury’s (4 mins), Marks and Spencer (4 mins) Cafes/Restaurants: The Travel Cafe, Four Corners, Scootercaffe, and Hannah Japanese Restaurant are amongst the many eateries nearby.

Closest Tube: Westminster, Waterloo, Lambeth North Local attractions: This student hall boasts views overlooking Westminster Bridge. The London Eye (8 mins), SEA LIFE Centre London Aquarium (6 mins), House of Commons (a 15 min walk across the bridge), and Florence Nightingale Museum (4 mins) are notable attractions.

Green spaces nearby: Archbishop’s Park (5 mins), Jubilee Park and Garden (6 minutes).

Urbanest King’s Cross Supermarkets: Co-op (7 mins), Waitrose (6 mins) Cafes/Restaurants: Cut+Grind Burgers, Franco Manca, and Dishoom’s Kings Cross (Indian cuisine) are examples of nearby restaurants. Vinyl Cafe-Tileyard Studios and Cafe Express are both within a 6 minutes’ walk.

Closest Tube: King’s Cross Local attractions: How can one mention King’s Cross without mentioning the Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 ¾ Quarters (13 mins)?

Canopy Market is 6 minutes away on the weekends for your favorite artisan goods.

Green spaces nearby: Camley Street Natural Park (8 mins), Handyside Gardens (5 mins) The below halls are run by the University of London: The Garden Halls Supermarkets: Waitrose (4 mins), Tesco (6 mins), Marks and Spencer (8 minutes).

Cafes/Restaurants: Restaurants right next door include Norfolk Arms (gastropub), Casa Tua King Cross (Italian), and Chillicool Restaurant London (Chinese cuisine).

Cafes nearby include Half Cup and Thenga Cafe.

Closest Tube: Euston Station, Euston Square, Russell Square Local attractions: Located in Bloomsbury but nearby King’s Cross/St. Pancras, it is a stone’s throw away from the British Library (5 mins), the British Museum (12 mins), and Senate House Library (11 mins).

Green spaces nearby: Cartwright Gardens (1 min), Bramber Green (5 mins).

Lillian Penson Hall Supermarkets: Tesco (7 mins), Coop (9 mins).

Cafes/Restaurants: Ask Italian, Mimos Cafe Bar, Caffe Nero, Golden Shalimar Indian, and Paramount Lebanese Kitchen Paddington.

Closest Tube: Lancaster Gate, Paddington Station Local attractions: Following the Paddington Bear Trail to the Paddington Bear statue (7 mins), Alexander Fleming Museum (7 mins).

Green spaces nearby: Hyde Park (21 mins), Norfolk Square Garden (6 mins).

International Hall Supermarkets: Co-op (8 mins), Waitrose (10 mins) Cafes/Restaurants: Ciao Bella, Cafe Romano, The Espresso Room, Salaam Namaste (Indian cuisine).

Closest Tube: Russell Square, Holbon, Euston, and King’s Cross Local attractions: The Brunswick Centre (shopping mall, 9 mins away), the British Museum (12 mins away), Senate House (12 mins).

Green spaces nearby: Brunswick Square Gardens (9 mins), Queen Square Gardens (6 mins) College Hall Supermarkets: Tesco (7 mins), Sainsbury’s (9 mins), Waitrose (10 mins).

Cafes/Restaurants: Cafe on the Square, Lever and Bloom Coffee, Ginger Jules Cafe, Vantra Eden (vegan), and Spaghetti House.

Closest Tube: Goodge Street, Euston Station, Russell Square, King’s Cross.

Local attractions: The British Museum (4 mins), Senate House Library (3 mins), The Wiener Holocaust Library (4 mins).

Green space nearby: Russell Square(6 mins).

Connaught Hall Supermarkets: Waitrose (7 mins).

Cafes/Restaurants: WingWing Kripsy Chicken, Ginger Jules Cafe, Pavilion (buffet restaurant), Starbucks, Bloomsbury Coffee House.

Closest Tube: Euston Station, Euston Square, Russell Square, King’s Cross.

Local attractions: The British Museum (7 mins), The British Library (11 mins), Senate House (7 mins).

Green spaces nearby: Tavistock Square Gardens (1 min), Gordon Square (2 mins).

Nutford House Supermarkets: Tesco (3 mins), Waitrose (4 mins).

Cafes/Restaurants: Mahal, Al Arez Express 1, Franco, Beirut Cafe.

Closest Tube: Edgware Station, Marble Arch Local attractions: Oxford Street (21 mins) – head down there to shop until you drop.

Green spaces nearby: Bryanston Square (4 mins), Montagu Square (6 mins), Hyde Park (8 mins).

Careers Meet employers who are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce at our

Black Minority Ethnic recruitment and networking event 7 October 2020

Hear from three organisations about the opportunities available and what they do to support and develop graduates and employees from a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) background.

Network with: Accenture AlixPartners LLP Barclays Bloomberg LP EY GlaxoSmithKline KraftHeinz S&P Global Teach First

Scan here to book your place

lse.ac.uk/careers

PART B

Wednesday 30 September Editor: Grace Chapman

arts & culture

The quiet radicalism of cottagecore on TikTok

by Lucy Knight

TikTok has emerged as a popular platform for expression and artistic representation, and it didn’t take long for TikTok to adapt its algorithm to my interests once the pandemic hit. Hours and hours were spent relentlessly scrolling through, annoying my friends with my constant video references and non-stop questioning: “Have you seen the TikTok I’ve sent you?”.

rejects not only these ideas but the patriarchal ideals that underpin them. It also celebrates sustainability and environmental protection, a thing that has escaped most people’s minds since the pandemic. All in all, it’s a celebration of a life which is old-fashioned in every way except in its social and cultural norms.

Cottagecore Lesbians embody wholesomeness and a certain kind of safeness which

is so far from conventional representations of the hypersexual lesbian. My housemate, who has just entered into her first same-sex relationship, coined it as a “gay awakening” of kinds, in that lesbians were no longer just attached to sentiments of promiscuity, but of love and wholesomeness. In both the representation of the ‘character’, and in the fact that these people can produce their own

But one TikTok trend has become the most prolific for me, and that is the wonders of Cottagecore. This ‘trend’, if you can call it that, is an aesthetic that romanticises country life, such as baking, foraging, pottery, and being friends with nature. It’s been the perfect escape for a year full of madness; for just 60 seconds you can be in a field full of daisies saying “good morning” to your local frogs.

Crucial to this aesthetic, which you’ll see after pure seconds of scrolling through #cottagecore, is the ‘character’ of the Cottagecore Lesbian. She almost exclusively has a fringe, a long, flowing dress, and a partner who loves to knit and make bread.

content through TikTok, it is free from the Male Gaze. Anyone and everyone is welcome to envision themselves making jams or sewing their clothes, whether or not you identify as a lesbian.

The Cottagecore aesthetic, however, isn’t without its problems. Modernity still rears its ugly head. Whether it’s the algorithms of TikTok, or just the whiteness associated with European cottage life, or both - there seems to be a surprising lack of Cottagecore people of colour on a platform that promotes accessibility.

With this being said, the Cottagecore aesthetic is quietly radical, allowing people to envision themselves outside of the demands of 2020 life. On a platform which promotes user-generated content, it remains largely free of patriarchal or capitalist expectations of a life you feel you must lead. Of course, I wouldn’t like to actually live the Cottagecore experience, waking up at 4 am to make bread or milk cows - but for a 60-second video, I can bloody dream.

There’s something quietly radical about Cottagecore, and indeed, the Cottagecore Lesbian. It’s a rejection of capitalist ideals, of city life - a life in which one lives for a wage and is dying for a holiday. The Cottagecore Lesbian

Illustration by Raphaelle Carmarcat

Salomé Melchior writes about her father Laurent, whom she considers to be a sublime poem. He faded away recently and unexpectedly. For her, poetry is the open sea where she may bring her father back to life through her vivid memory. Photography also by Salomé Melchior.

Laurent

by Salomé Melchior

Suite à ta mort, tout paraît futile, tout est néant et enivrant dans cette vie peu docile.

Ton absence résonne: Fut-il?

Ton bonheur, ton punch et ton rire sont dessinés en moi et forment des tableaux de divins souvenirs. Élégant, combattant et rêveur, Laurent était en quête d’être un homme libre sur cette terre en apesanteur.

Ses idées naviguèrent toujours vers le large et son cœur n’avait pas de frontières avec de la générosité étalée sur ses doux rivages.

L’âme de mon père s’aventure au delà des sécurités côtières sans délaisser l’amour de la mer.

Il n’avait jamais peur de sortir du port de l’habitude, sa colonne vertébrale était tel un mât solide dans l’air lugubre.

Ses poumons ont stocké trop de fumée, et d’un jour à l’autre, il s’est envolé.

Papa il y a en toi des océans de tendresse, de l’optimisme même dans la détresse.

Tu meurs à cause d’une tumeur sans nom, et tu embarques avec toi plusieurs noms: l’Aventure, la Beauté, la Bonté, en somme, tout ce qu’il y a de plus Pur dans cette vaste nature.

escape

My dearest sister, who always held my hand,

by aifos

Close your eyes and calm down, Run from thoughts that make you frown, You hear my voice and nothing more, And now – escape – as I count to four.

One, imagine the place of your peace, Two, there, where anxieties cease, Three, you feel secure, safe and serene, Four, you are there, real but unseen.

Amid this chaos, panic and fear, Quarantine Series : ‘Bailey’

Photography by Sebastian Mullen

You are away, in rest, not near,

Who was my mum, dad; she was my heartland.

She came to me, wiped away my tears, She was eight herself, tiny and full of fears, But we did it, we managed to survive, Besides, we have happy memories in our archive.

So, in the end, where is my place of peace, To where I escape when I fall apart by the piece?

It is the hotel balcony where we looked at the sunset, It is the swings where there was no one, only our duet.

Now I’ll tell you about my place of peace,

It is where we walked on the village streets,

Everything stops there, even the timepiece.

Shouting songs or just listening to beats,

In the childhood, I rarely felt placid, Quarrels, shouts and my parents’ acid,

It is where at 5am we met the rosy dawn, My family is here, even so it is long gone.

After the divorce it was better but now,

I hope by now you understand what I mean,

I wasn’t needed, I was deserted somehow.

There is no particular place or specific scene,

I was okay and it didn’t break me at all, I had my shelter, my small brick wall,

It is with her, I feel like home, like family, It is where I belong; I am welcomed happily.

Greek Weird Wave cinema: absurdity from reality

by Dimitra Prekka

It was 2016 and I had randomly chosen to watch ‘The Lobster’ (2015) because I found the cover art pretty. I’d heard of Yorgos Lanthimos before, and everyone has heard of ‘Dogtooth’ (2009) in Greece. Immediately, I implored my best friend to watch this film, not disclosing at the time any information about the film other than it’s title and director. Cluelessly and rather comically, he watched the various sex scenes of The Lobster with his father, mother, and baby sister during their family movie night. Thus began my introduction to the films of Yorgos Lanthimos.

‘Too awkward and weird to watch with a family member’ is a description of ‘Weird Wave’ films that most people would agree with. At the same time, these films carry meaning, links to the modern Greek identity, and to the absurd national feeling of a society deeply shaken by its economic collapse. Common characteristics of films in the wave include seemingly emotionless characters placed in absurd situations which everyone regards as normal, along with simple dialogue and cold alienating colours.

Lanthimos’ films epitomise the wave and provide my personal favourites in the movement: his films make my brain feel good and provide a weird sense of comfort I didn’t know I needed.

‘Dogtooth’ (2009) by Lanthimos is one of the major starting points for the collective. The film describes a family in which the three adult children are completely isolated from the outside world, with the parents in complete control of their children’s knowledge, oftentimes altering the meaning of words in the household: for example, making ‘sea’ mean ‘chair’. The viewer sees a microcosmic society within the household with its own definitions, morals and rules. Once a sister receives tapes from the outside world, the regime of parental control is threatened as the adult children become increasingly autonomous.

The film expresses a critique of the ideal of the Greek family, as well as overprotective parents everywhere. In Greece, it’s very common to be close with your parents to the point of living with them for many years after the age of 18. This phenomenon is not only a means to limit expenses but it is a choice from both children and parents based on mutual love; children like to be taken care of and parents like to care for them indefinitely. Of course, the child is able to leave the household anytime they wish to live independently, but inevitably the imminent change causes distress. In the film, the sister knocks her dogtooth out and escapes violently; this is what this change feels like. In a similar vein, the family often becomes a microcosm of society and, in this case, a lens by which we can critique the larger systems of our society that make us feel trapped.

‘The Lobster’ (2015) is Lanthimos’ later and much larger film production being co-produced by various countries including the UK and Greece. The film follows David, portrayed by Colin Farrell, who enters into a hotel in which one has 45 days to find a suitable partner, and if not will be turned into an animal. A group of people outside the hotel are called ‘loners’, they have chosen to defy the hotel’s rules and be alone in the woods while following their own set of strict rules.

Lanthimos’ film critiques the societal pressure placed on relationships; the pressure to be with someone because being alone is equal to condemnation. At the same time, the film contains no grey areas: choices are black or white, bisexuality isn’t an option in the hotel and the shoes offered do not have half-sizes. The parallels with the binaries in Greek society are clear: increasingly, the spectrum of sexuality is accepted, but this certainly is a shift that comes from the younger generation as opposed to the older members of society.

The goal of the Greek Weird Wave is epitomised in the films of Lanthimos. Both films are absurd, funny, and disturbing at the same time, whilst seeking to understand and laugh about the values and traditions of society when brought to the extreme. During the economic crisis, everyone struggled no matter the social class.

We got shaken up as a society and, as always during a crisis, the existing problems became much larger. Our Greek reality came into question. As I leave Greece now, I find comfort in ‘Dogtooth’, that acknowledges the distress that autonomy can cause, and in The Lobster, that promotes love as an ideal irrelevant to any rules by societal structures. I am brought to a world too absurd to be home, but too similar to be comfortable.

REVIEW

Wednesday 30 September

Editors: Amber Iglesia and Molly Horner

Enjoy London on the cheap (COVID-19 special)

by Molly Horner, Shahana Bagchi, Sebastian Mullen, and Amber Iglesia

Books

The Southbank Centre has a daily book market offering a wide selection of both paperback and hardback books of all genres. Located underneath Waterloo Bridge and open until 7.00pm, it’s the perfect place for a mid-walk peruse along the river.

If you’re on a budget, Book and Comic Exchange in Notting Hill is a quaint bookshop with a large section of literary treasures available for 50p or less. Additionally, the middle aisle is dedicated to vintage comics and magazines.

Afterwards, wander around leafy Notting Hill - and try and find the (admittedly disappointing) travel bookshop famously run by Hugh Grant in the movie of the same name!

Opening in the 1970s as part of the Tower Hamlets Art Project, it was the first bookshop to open in Tower Hamlets and has been dutifully serving the East End ever since.

isn’t to your taste this month, take a look at the next! BFI might not get their selection right every time, but once in a while they really hit the mark. £3 for 16-25 year olds if you register on their website.

Make sure to then head up to Broadway Market to visit - amongst a range of other great small businesses - Donlon Books, Artwords, and The Broadway Bookshop.

The wider London Fields area is great to explore and is always buzzing.

Film Recommandation: La Haine

Judd Books has a huge stock of used and bargain academic books across two floors offering an extra 10% discount available for those with Student ID. A Bloomsbury treasure trove of second hand books since 1978, Skoob Books has suspended trading in its original basement store (boasting 100,000 books of a 1,000,000 plus collection). They are however running a pop-up in the nearby Brunswick Centre, an absolute must for students across the generations! Enjoy a rummage and maybe pick up a poster to prove your literary credentials in halls.

Don’t fall into the trap of being chained to the confines of WC1 in first year, make sure to explore the East which is far superior for food, bars, and - hear me out - bookshops. Within walking distance of Brick Lane and Spitalfields Market is Libreria, a bespoke store with comfy seats nestled between thematically arranged titles along rolling bookshelves. A five minute walk up the road will find you at Brick Lane Bookshop, which boasts a large array of fiction, nonfiction, and books about London.

Impress your significant other with your exceptional taste by bringing them to Curzon Soho.

Known for its neon red Curzon sign, this cinema definitely has a diner-esque atmosphere that remains relatively unique in cinemas.

Coupled with a lovely bar, this cinema has the perfect one-two drinks-film combo that your dates have been lacking.

This three screen cinema does have very limited seating, so make sure to book your tickets in advance.

Film Recommendation: Memories of Murder

Cinema

With a second lockdown on the horizon, your time is valuable. You can’t be spending it on some overpriced, underwhelming cinema ticket. If you need any advice on the cinemas to go to during this period of Covid-19, look no further.

Here are three cinemas that are sure to give you a good time.

Are you one of those cool cats that like to watch old-timey films with 80 year olds? Well, this is the place for you! BFI Southbank is a four screen cinema with a seemingly constant stream of events, productions, and speakers. If the selection

While admittedly on the more expensive side of London cinemas, ticket prices are an accurate amount for the service provided. With the option of having full meals and drinks (in your actual seats, if you’re nasty), Everyman Hampstead is fancy as hell. If you’ve been saving up for a special outing, you could do a lot worse than this cinema. The perfect location to impress someone with, but make sure you arrive much earlier than the starting time in order to get the full experience.

Film Recommendation: David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet

Music

Just down the road from the Barbican, is The Museum of LSE’s Pulse Radio is a regularlybroadcasting student-helmed radio London which is free to visit with a pre-booked slot online and station. Tune in to hear a variety of music and chat, or get involved their permanent galleries offer an almost-complete history of London with your own show and learn to from 450,000 BC to the present mix. Pulse is holding a sociallyday: the most interesting galleries distant and Covid-secure event on the 7th of October at Costa Del are from the 1950s to now. The Museum has been at the forefront Tottenham, featuring the best of the conversation in the cultural DJs from LSE world about the role of statues playing from and monuments in the wake of 2.00pm to 10.00pm. Find the Black Lives Matter protests this year and also offers explorations tickets on of LGBTQ Roman London and an Pulse’s socials. extensive program for Black History Month.

Exhibitions

The exhibition spaces at The Barbican Centre have partially reopened with a free timed ticket entry which must be booked in advance. The Curve art gallery is currently hosting the first UK exhibition of Nigerian-American artist Toyin Ojih Odutola entitled A Counter vailing Theory which examines imagined ancient myth. Entry to the exhibition is available for £5 with Young Barbican membership and the adjoining conservatory is offering free, timed slots.

Comedy

The Top Secret Comedy Club has free tickets to Monday Night Stand Up, concessions for students in many other events, and is only a 10 minute walk away from campus.

Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green has previously hosted Harry Hill, Dara O’Brien, and many other celebrated comedians.

They offer £3 tickets to students for certain events.

Illustration by Ellie Reeves

The Tate Modern and Tate Britain have reopened including an Andy Warhol exhibition featuring iconic works from the Warhol collection. For free you can join the Tate Collective for £5 tickets to all exhibitions.

Virtual Museum Tours are available to have a look around historical artifacts curated from all over the world while the museums are closed.

Register online to contribute: www.beaveronline.co.uk @beaveronline on Twitter and Instagram

Tenet - a dangerous step backward for Nolan

by Amber Iglesia

Despite significant fan anticipation, Tenet is far from Christopher Nolan’s best work. Its failure to keep its mind-blowing promise of becoming the next fantastic blockbuster is best summarised by its convoluted plot and annoyingly muffled sounds. Tenet follows an unnamed protagonist (John David Washington) and his partner Neil (Robert Pattinson) who are charged with the mission of trying to prevent World War III which is being experienced through the time-inverted material and arms of Sator (Kenneth Branagh). The trajectory of time has been reversed and so The Protagonist must ascertain how to avoid this coming war when faced with objects including a time-inverted bullet that no longer flies forward, but back into the gun.

If that’s already confused you, it might be best to steer clear of Tenet.

The film is essentially split into two halves. The protagonist goes through a series of events in the first half which are also explored in the second - but in reverse order.

Confusing, I know. Essentially, this means you tend to see one scene from two different angles, one in forward time and the other in reverse. While I do not doubt that Nolan has meticulously thought through every precise moment and it has been edited to make perfect sense, there are times where I (and I imagine most viewers) do not follow. I trust Nolan and I trust that the two plot lines match up, but with only one viewing and no ability to pause, my head hurt trying to collate that much information.

Tenet is not short of action, loud explosions, and bonkers stunts, however, Nolan has armed himself with a sound mix that completely kills im-

portant pieces of dialogue that you have to pay attention to in order to follow. In most films, failing to hear a couple of lines is not detrimental, however, Nolan’s muffled exposition is a vital flaw. Mistakenly prioritising thrilling, loud action scenes over dialogue is the film's downfall.

Tenet, ultimately, raises more questions than answers, making the film quite in keeping with Nolan’s previous work. Looking back over Nolan’s repertoire: in Inception we wonder if the protagonist is still dreaming, and the cliffhanger in The Prestige leaves us contemplating what the

Transplant Chats with Eliza - Essential listening

by Isabella Pojuner Organ transplants are poorly represented in culture and media, yet thousands in the UK are in need of or have received one - with all the repercussions it brings. After years of coping with heart failure, my dear friend Eliza received a heart transplant in 2019 and has since created a podcast of conversations between herself and others in the transplant community.

While she advertises the podcast as a support line for them, their family, and friends, I believe it is a trove of information and essential listening for the wider public. Transplant patients or those living with organ failure, become their own advocates and experts on their conditions, self-educating constantly in spite of emotionally challenging circumstances. Of course, I know this about Eliza, but listening to the stories of others provides a multi-faceted and diverse insight into the UK health system: its resilience, strengths, and pitfalls, which are often structural and political.

You can expect a ton of laugh-outloud moments to startle fellow tube passengers (the best sign of any podcast!) right alongside displays of extraordinary resilience and humanity in the face of literal life and death. These are real life stories that continue to

be played out - before and after any transplants, before and after Eliza’s conversational recordings. They deserve representation and a place in your heart.

Recommended episodes: Ep.8: A Millennial’s Guide to Having an Unexpected Transplant

truth may be. The questions that you come away with from these films tend to be philosophical and a good subject for debate and interpretation. The difference with Tenet, however, is that it gave us more mechanical questions about the logistics of time-inversion as opposed to those stimulating philosophical questions Nolan is known for prompting. As a result, you fail to muster any real/consequential emotional involvement because you spend so much time rattling your brain around the time-sequence of events. Not always mak-

The Vinyl Chord: Soreab - Kraepelin Avenue EP

by Seth Rice

Ep.12: Things You May or May Not Know About Organ Donation (especially good for those new to the topic!)

Transplant Chats With Eliza is available for listening on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

ing for an easy viewing experience.

Nolan’s last film, Dunkirk took a completely opposite approach.

Characters and complex plots were not prioritised, and Nolan presented us with a much more stripped-down narrative. While this experimental filmmaking worked, Nolan has driven us to the extreme in presenting a film which is such an ornate puzzle making it devoid of emotional depth. As such, out of all of Nolan’s films, this is probably his most forgettable.

Label: Baroque Sunbursts Purchased: Honest Jon’s in Coal Drops Yard Why? Track #2 Flowers was playing as I walked in and I just couldn’t resist investigating.

Dystopia, or Utopia? It’s up to the listener to decide exactly what Italian-British electronic artist Soreab seeks to convey in his latest project. There are moments when the syncopated drums and cold, metallic melodies dip almost entirely into darkness and rarely come up gasping for air. Indeed, the melodies are regularly subsumed and yet tinker so crucially in the background to create a booming sense of conflict and brio. Even in the initial sounds of this four-track EP, a fusion of the industrial and the gentle is immediate. The artist’s light, ethereal start gives way to scattering electrical buzzes, before the chirping of birds, attempt in vain, to numb the drum blows.

If the video for track three, Pods, is anything to go by, the accompanying music does not follow strict laws of frankly anything. Do watch it yourself and try, as I did, to decipher the intense fascination for the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Inevitably, the listening experience is taken as a plunge more than anything. Now, I listened to

this record at 8.00am, wearing my pyjamas and eating a peanut butter bagel—living in a world away from the cataclysmic dreamscape that it inhabits. But there remained that ineffable feeling of transience that accompanies an unknowable piece of music. That is precisely where the record succeeds most—in its ability to jolt and then transport. The tracks never invest too heavily in one idea. On Flowers, a woman’s warped voice can be heard only in spurts and seemingly at random points. At each turn, a new sound can be heard over the main rhythm.

As a collection however, Kraepelin Avenue can feel overbearing. The final track—Jyraghie—is certainly less immersive than its predecessors and remains, to my ears, without a point. Individually, the first three are extremely worthwhile.

Any YouTube comment section of a deep house tune will lay claim to ‘literally hearing colour,’ perhaps in another dimension. Kraepelin Avenue will do nothing of the sort.

The brutal strength of Soreab’s drums, together with the dispersed electronic clangours, is remarkably evocative of our own future with all of it’s confusing bleeps and bloops and ever present robotic glaze. So, by all means, play this EP in the morning, in your dressing gown, and when you listen, listen loud.

SOCIAL Social editor shamelessly begs for writers

In Memoriam: things we lost to Covid-19

placement because it’s not. I miss actual house parties. I miss pub crawls. God, I even miss the cavernous pits of Zoo on a Wednesday night. I long for a time where it was safe to go out, pay to drink myself into oblivion, gather in a crowded room full of sweaty people and dance to mediocre Pitbull remixes. Dale.

Well hello there and welcome to the Fresher’s Edition of the Social section! We’ve got a great collection of pieces here, showcasing some of the finest, most witty journalism the university has to offer (re: my article x). But I do have a little confession. The name of this issue is a bit misleading because we don’t actually have any freshers writing for us. Yes, they’re all too busy chasing sex, drugs and rock n’ roll to ever consider something boring like writing for The Beaver.

But, if you’re sitting comfortably, I’ll share with you a little secret: writing for The Beaver is how you get those things. It’s a fast track. Especially with all this COVID malarkey going on. If you join the Social team, we’ll be getting creative with the chat, smacking back some beers, and cotching in the most exclusive venue in London: the media centre.

Now, obviously, it’s up to you. You can leave it and try to get mad in your six-man kitchen the whole time, and I’ll just fill up these pages with ramblings every fortnight. We’ll lead the rest of our lives separately, wondering what could have been. But I don’t want that. You don’t want that. Please. Join Social today.

Christina Ivey

The graduate job market It’s hard enough finding a decent job in a regular, upbeat economy, and Covid-19 has decimated most people’s career prospects. Studies show that graduating in a recession has a negative effect on your lifelong earnings and this pandemic has plunged the UK economy into the deepest recession since records began. I don’t want to think about the implications of that. The Harvard Business Review claims people who graduate during recessions “tend to be happier with their jobs” despite earning less, but I’d chalk this up to the fact that they’re simply grateful for the scraps that have been thrown at them.

Parties It seems obvious to say, but us extroverts have taken a fat ‘L’ in this pandemic. And no, don’t tell me the Houseparty app is a good re-

International travel This isn’t totally lost, but it is even more of a pain in the arse than it was before: long boarding times, wrap-around queues, and a shorter fuse for people not following the rules. Also, entry forms have reached a new level of invasiveness – recently, I had to fill out a fourpage immigration form just to get clearance to go to my own country. Having to spend two weeks in quarantine after arrival in most destinations makes international travel quite the hassle, coupled with the possibility that you could be stranded in your destination indefinitely if they decide to close their borders while you’re there.

Hugs Hugs won’t fix my unrelenting mental health problems, but the absence of them definitely hurts. What’s the point of complaining about things if no one’s there to give me a good hug afterwards? I never thought I would live in a society where hugs felt risqué, but here I am. I am big on hugs, but not big on dying. It’s been hard for me to contend with losing loved ones to Covid-19 and other causes, being unable to attend their funerals, and being unable to even release some of that grief through hugs.

LSE Library adopts new policy to attract students

J.Boucher

The LSE library, plagued by chronic under-interest from the student body as well as a persistent vermin problem, has announced a radical new move: the adoption of an official library cat. Reached for comment in Week 0, a spokesperson for the Library said the move was a logical one: “We were having all these problems with mice, because students keep eating in the library, despite posted signs,” said Stan F. Eline, part of the Library’s Student Outreach Team. “We were having endless meetings, until finally somebody just said, ‘Why don’t we just get a cat?’ And no one could think of a better solution.”

The cat, which is currently in the care of a veterinarian for immunisations and minor surgery, was adopted from a local shelter, The Beaver has learned. It is a hairless, hypo-allergenic ‘Sphinx Cat’, so as not to affect vulnerable students. The cat’s lack of fur means it will not be allowed outside the Library, lest it suffer in the harsh London weather, or be kidnapped by a rival university.

“We’re very concerned with the cat’s well-being,” said Eline, “We know there are lots of rival uni’s that would love to kidnap the cat to get back at LSE for surpassing them in the rankings. We’re also worried it might get cold, and frankly that it could find more gainful employment somewhere else.” Posters will be placed at all entrances to the Library to remind students not to let the cat out. “We’re really counting on the students here not to let the cat out,” said Eline.

The Library hopes the cat will be a valued pest-control professional, but moreover that it will drive student engagement. “We have a lot of trouble getting students into the Library,” Eline opined, “Even more so with this COVID thing, we’re worried no one will come and the

whole place will be empty. The Library is a tremendous expense for the school, and in these tough financial times, we want to put our best foot forward.” Eline declined to answer questions about threats to the Library’s continued operation. “Whatever problems we face, we have a cat now, so please come and say hi, maybe check out some books, maybe leave your food in Escape as multiple posted advisories recommend.”

As part of this outreach, the cat’s name is being outsourced to a committee of students, who have requested that they remain anonymous so as to avoid harassment. When contacted for this article, LSE Director Minouche Shafik said, “Improving the appeal of the Library is definitely in the top ten priorities for the School and our LSE 2030 plan. I heard somewhere they were thinking of calling the cat ‘Meownouche Shafik,’ which I think is a great idea.” Pro-Director for Research Simon Hix commented as well: “It’s a novel idea - I can’t wait to make a Masters student do a dissertation on its effects. I think they should call it ‘Simon Hiss’. Well, ‘Professor Simon Hiss’ would be more proper.”

The cat has an Instagram account, @LSELibraryCat, photos are encouraged, say the Library team.

According to a source on the Naming Committee, possible names include: Mr. The Library Cat Adam Smith Professor Simon Hiss Wilfredo Pawreto Meownouche Shafik

The Social section is open to submissions of articles, cartoons or any other clever chat.

Please, please email m.mccollum@lse.ac.uk to submit.

Or you can email if you want to go for a coffee or a pint or something. That’d be nice.

Ivey

ss pub nesday myself le and

e than and a ms have a fourn counn most oupled nation here.

ut the aining ards? I ué, but ard for causes, ven re-

Wednesday 30 September 2020 editor: Miles McCollum

lifestyle/advice/satire

LSE Campus made COVID-19 ready Students from all around the globe are flocking back to LSE as the institution opens its doors again for the start of the academic year. This Freshers’ Week the campus is awash with an electric atmosphere, as a new cohort of students sets out to forge its own identity within the institution. However, given the global pandemic, a few modifications have been made to ensure LSE students are safe, and I got in touch with a some of the big players at LSE in order to take a closer look at what’s going on.

First off, I had a quick chat with the head of the LSE Trace team about the university’s new tracking system. “Now, it is the hope of the school’s faculty that LSE Trace will work just as well as the government’s Track and Trace scheme did this summer. As such, students have been advised by the LSE Trace team to get tested regularly even if they have no symptoms. They should also be going to the toilet even if they don’t need it, and eating even if they are not hungry.”

The conversation then moved on to what would and would not be allowed on campus. “We will, of course, allow students to sit in groups in the library as this is a place of work and education. However we have employed our own COVID Wardens, each paid £20 an hour, to look out for smiling, engaging in pleasant chit-chat or any other sociable behaviour, as this is a violation of the rule of six.”

And this is not the only change to how things will run this year on site – a big question on everyone’s lips is what the situation will be like at Tuns with social distancing. Speaking to the manager, he said,

“You can say goodbye to Friday Night Beers because The Three Tuns Pub has always and will always take the Coronavirus regulations very seriously. Just think about that time we whacked all of our staff on furlough for the whole summer even though none of them were going to be working anyway.”

An immense amount of effort has also been put in place to allow the LSE Student community to continue to thrive, and the LSESU has never been slow to compliment itself on this point. A spokesperson for the SU said to me, “Given this year’s drop in international admissions, we’ve lost a large proportion of our sweet, sweet China money.

Therefore, we’ve had to reallocate funding in order to best serve the needs of the students.

For many, a basic lack of practical education within the schooling system has been combined with misinformation, over moralisation and a misunderstanding of the severity of STIs. When considering a university environment, identifying the international disparities in sex education must also play a role in overall student understanding and the ability to keep safe and healthy. Yet universities throw thousands of students together who are discovering the worlds of alcohol and adulthood and provide little to no active education on sexual health or relationships. Some will have been lucky enough to have received a full, clear, and substantial curriculum of sex ed, but the presumption of both the institutional and social aspects of university is that somehow all 18 year olds will have equal understanding.

The UK curriculum has made positive strides in the last few decades to ensure better education, but even recent developments such as the introduction of LGBTQ+ and consent-positive education have spent over 10 years being vetoed by parliament and have now been postponed due to COVID-19. It also remains the case that many of your fellow students won’t have benefitted from these recent devel-

to a member of the Netball Club for comment: “I’ve had lots of people asking me whether the reason we somehow received a greater AU Grant this year is because the current AU President was on the netball committee last year. I personally can’t see the connection there – I think it’s down to our new club motto: Never Bankroll Football Bankroll Rugby.”

“Having done our research, we know that the mortality rate of COVID-19 amongst the young is a staggering 1 in 100,000. Meanwhile, deaths from suicide each year are just 5 in 100,000! Therefore, in order to keep our students safe, we’ve defunded student activities across the board, and asked society and club committees to fork out £150 from their already-reduced budgets for a virtual fresher’s fair, even though the real-life fair is free. No cuts in our pay cheques though!”

The sports subsection of the SU, the Athletics Union, has also found itself strapped for cash due to COVID, and as such asked all clubs to expect an AU Grant 30% lower than last year’s. In spite of this, the AU Grants to Netball and Men’s Rugby actually increased. I reached out

Let’s talk about LSEX: Education A new university year begins - you get a new room, greater levels of alcohol tolerance, outrageous debt and, for one in four freshers, a sexually transmitted disease (STI). If we have learnt anything from this pandemic it may well be that while you can outline precautions for public health, these can often be ignored or difficult to follow. But when we examine the sexual health crisis in young people there is a more complex issue at hand.

Miles McCollum

Hannah Brown

opments anyway, or they have come from countries that either have no statutory schooling on sex or, even worse, a curriculum that actively discourages discussion and education on these topics.

I, myself, can distinctly sexual health in my some blurry photogdepicting various STI with the resoundpeople get these reality, not only leading (over 60% of men of chlamydia), provide any how treatand how one and cured.

Testing is - it can be (even if inter-

“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”

draw to mind two sessions on schooling. The first involved raphy of scary images rashes and bumps along ing sense that only bad bad, scary diseases. In are such pictures mis75% of woman and show no symptoms but they also fail to practical advise on able most STIs are could get tested not a scary thing done for free you’re an n a -

tional student), anonymously, quickly, and even postally so you do not have to go to a clinic. Additionally, while the warnings of hideous medical photography may work for you, getting tested can prevent greater problems down the road - untreated STIs can lead to arthritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, fertility issues and even blood poisoning.

The second lesson I remember was the classic “this is a condom” session, although, sadly, we never had the amusement of trying them on cucumbers, nor was there talk of checking the safety of a condom.

Crucially, I recall my teacher’s swift dismissal of a student’s question on how lesbians prevented STIs – she told the student she should “ask a lesbian”.

The heteronormative teaching of sexual health remains a key barrier to this day in keeping student STI levels down, especially given the increasing rates of infection in the lesbian community.

But those two lessons were, in my school’s opinion, sufficient in preparing me for the adult world of sex, and I know other UK-based students who received even less. Some universities provide and sometimes mandate a sexual consent session during freshers. But in my experience, when just optional, these are rarely attended by those who would most benefit from this learning. It’s high time our educational institutions collectively took responsibility for teaching students the information they actually need to know.

SPORT

Wednesday 30 September 2020 Editors: Sam Taylor

LSE AND SPORTS: ARE WE ACTUALLY ANY GOOD?

Yannick Kauffman Staff Writer

A quick glance at the the BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) website for all-time results will reveal that the London School of Economics (LSE) is safely placed behind Loughborough University in the dropdown filter for institutions — how fitting to have two giants of UK university sport right next to each other? However, there remains one question left as-yet unanswered: how does LSE rank against other universities? Fortunately, a dataset containing all fixtures from 2011–2019 in which LSE has featured has been made available and will provide the fuel for the myth-busting journey on which we are about to embark. Have you ever wondered which university LSE has played, won, drawn, or lost against the most; or how LSE’s record has evolved over the years; or if LSE is better than UCL, King’s, or Imperial?

If yes, buckle up, you’re in for a ride.

Right off the bat, there is good news to share: LSE has won more games than it has lost—but not by much. Indeed, LSE’s 2161 wins out of 4423 games played, leaves it with a win percentage of 48.86%, falling just below the 50% mark.

I’m sure you are wondering: did I have a positive impact on LSE’s performance during my time there? Judging by the win percentage, LSE reached its zenith between 2015–2017, hitting well above 50 in both seasons, before falling short of that mark in subsequent seasons.

Interestingly, Lacrosse went from having the highest win percentage across all sports in 2015/16 to having the lowest in 2016/17 — the General Course effect?

A deep-dive into performances across sports at LSE will be the next constituent part of this series. But for now, let’s focus on our collective triumphs (and failures); what better way to do so than to analyse performances against our archrivals?

Those at LSE will be well-acquainted with our various nemeses off the pitch— UCL, King’s, and Imperial — but how do we fare on it? While the academic battle consists of pointing at rankings and entry requirements, Wednesday afternoons permit an athletic battle, where we can let our feet (or arms) do the talking.

However, with a losing head-to-head record against UCL and King’s, let’s just stick to academic rankings, shall we?

of only 31.9% —who knew dissecting the weaknesses of LSE teams was part of their medical school curriculum?

When considering LSE’s win percentage not only against the top 10 most played teams but against all opponents, King’s

Indeed, LSE has won more games than it has lost, but the poor head-to-head records against rivals such as King’s and UCL certainly do not proliferate our bragging rights. Perhaps this is not all too distressing for LSE students; a comparison

GKT remains the toughest team to beat, alongside Reading and East London.

On the upside, LSE clearly fairs well against the Arts, with a win percentage of around 70% against UAL and Goldsmiths.

Perhaps, their creative movements and plays are, as Martin Tyler would put it , “. . . the right idea, just not the right execution.”

of performances across sports might well be more fascinating than one across universities. Having considered LSE’s overall accomplishments in this article, the next one in this series will explore the intra-LSE bragging rights : which sports drag LSE down and which lift it up.

LSE and UCL have battled it out a total of 461 times, with our neighbours coming out on top in 225 games. Nevertheless,

LSE has won more games against Imperial than it has lost, yet 96 losses against Royal Holloway are a painful reminder of LSE’s somewhat average head-to-head record.

Incidentally, LSE teams have not only lost 96 times to Royal Holloway but have also played at their ground a total of 96 times, having to make their way on a tortuous— and indeed, an unsuccessful— expedition to Egham, sacred home also to the LUSL Cup. Among our top 10 most played teams, LSE has the highest win percentage against the University of Essex with 61.1%, a fine feat which can be dramatically contrasted by a harrowing historic record against King’s GKT against whom LSE maintains a win percentage

NERDSPOTTING Like the plague—or another unnamed infectious disease—I avoided the LSESU Virtual Freshers fair last week. I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to scream, “WRITE FOR THE BEAVER IT’S AMAZING” at LSE’s newest, best and brightest. I, like many of the AU legends, hide away

from my nerd status and for my fresher year refrained from expressing my creative side. In year 2, however, I joined The Beaver and never looked back.

There will be many societies trying to poach the new talent this year, but none quite like this one. Take it from me, a clichéd, nostalgic 3rd year - university genuinely flies by, so don’t waste it. Get

involved from the get go and join the most self-righteous group of students on campus, having your name strewn about the place every other Tuesday. So as you make your societal decisions this year...

Choose The Beaver. Choose a hot media office on a Saturday morning. Choose exclusive, semi-wiffy banter. Choose becoming part of a slightly incestuous group of actual legends. Choose to supply me with articles so that I can sell my soul to job applications. Choose Life.

Choose Beaver Sport.

American Sports Round Up: It’s an exciting time for sports fans across the pond, with the pandemic resulting in all major leagues playing currently. In fact, 11th September marked the first day EVER that the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, MLS, and NHL all played. It was, however, less exciting for Houston sports fans with Houston teams unable to buy a win in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS. The NFL returned to a solid start on the day after a six-month hiatus from play. Unbelievably, the league wasn’t actually affected by the pandemic and this is just the length of the offseason.

Nevertheless, fans had an anxious wait before the action started with endless COVID protocols being brought into effect which, believe it or not, are a lot harder to follow in teams of 53. Regardless, play has continued through to week 3 of the season, where we currently find ourselves, with unbeaten starts from

11 out of the 32 teams. The NBA took a very different approach when returning to action and followed a system similar to UFC’s ‘Fight Island’ by taking over the Disneyland Resort in Florida. The ‘biosecure bubble’ played home to 22 teams for the final games of the regular season before entering the subsequent 16 team playoffs.

Currently, the LA Lakers are waiting to discover who they are going to face in the NBA finals, with the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics battling it out in the Eastern Conference Finals. The NBA playoffs have a slightly different format to most with teams playing two ‘best of 7’ games in their own conference before a conference final and then the two victors from each conference face off. NBA superstars also took the opportunity to protest police brutality and promote social justice by wearing ‘social justice slogans’ on their shirts in place of their names. The

Milwaukee Bucks also boycotted a game in protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake - with little to show for it, as the league returned as normal a few nights later after an improbable intervention from Barack Obama.

We’re also quite deep into the WNBA playoffs, which takes another format again. The WNBA has 8 teams, all of whom attend the playoffs. There are two rounds of single-elimination games played between the lower-seeded teams before the top two seeds come in and play a ‘best of 5’ series. Currently, the Seattle Storm have a 2 game lead on the Minnesota Lynx and the Connecticut Sun a 2-1 lead over the Las Vegas Aces in the semi-finals - two very exciting matchups.

The MLS also changed it up for the restart, competing in an ‘MLS is Back’ mini-tournament before continuing with their regular season. This tournament was won by the Portland Timbers,

who beat Orlando City 2-1 in the final.

Following this, the regular season has continued with all teams having played 13 out of 18 games so far. As we approach the business end of the season, the Columbus Crew and Seattle Sounders lead their respective conferences, but there remains a lot to play for.

The US major leagues attract a lot of support both home and overseas and fans were excited to see them return after an arduous, sportless summer.

Here’s to hoping COVID doesn’t present another obstacle as most leagues approach their culmination.

SAMMY T’S SECTION

LSE FIVES GO TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:

LSE Fives’ recent achievement of reaching the national semis have gone scarily under the radar, partly because of its membership of 4, but also because no one has any idea what fives actually is. Still, LSE’s rich-boy squash, or as it is officially known ‘Eton and Rugby fives’ solidly cemented itself as LSEs most successful AU club with a trip to the semis and returning a budget surplus of £40. The cash strapped AU was elated to have a club turn them a profit, with the spare funds immediately transferred into the Netball account. The Fives team were unlucky to lose in the semi-final, hitting the ball against the wall slightly less well than the other teams, but reaching it was still a fantastic achievement. There still remains a lot for the Men’s FC to be jealous about with the Fives getting two things they can’t - semi’s and money.

MEN’S RUGBY STUDENT HAS TO PAY FOR PINT IN TUNS, KICKS OFF: After ordering a deliciously warm pint of Stella Artois at Friday Tuns, an LSE Rugby player was mortified when he was asked to present £3.50. “But bro” he wailed at his bartender, who clearly missed the memo that rugby drink for free. The situation soon turned sour as our disgruntled player was asked to leave the premises; “Don’t you know who I am, I play 2s” he barked. Adding, “Well my parents pay your wages” as a passing shot at the turned back of the unforgiving bouncer. That was not the end of the night for our wounded warrior though as he headed straight to a local spoons, downed 3 pints before heading home, loading up tinder, and texting every girl in his contacts, ‘you up’ - all to no avail.

AU TRY TO ORGANISE PISS UP IN BREWERY, GETS CANCELLED: The AU’s first social event of the year, a piss up in a brewery was cancelled yesterday after it turned out that they couldn’t organise one. It comes as their list of tasks grew to an unmanageable 2 - the freshers fair and ‘return to play’. The phased return to play proved to be too much to handle for our union due to the sheer amount of athletic activity at LSE. In all fairness, appointing a COVID officer and following national body guidelines is a lot to remember. Some say that it’s the SU’s fault for understaffing the AU, others fairly blame an unprecedented circumstance but I prefer to let bygones be bygones. Personally, I for one am just looking forward to their next social event . . . an orgy in a brothel.

Next Week: AU TRY TO ORGANISE ORGY IN BROTHEL, GETS CANCELLED:

Write for us. Match Reports, Club News, Event Reports.

Submit articles @Beaveronline.co.uk

AMEENA HAMID

interview: Zehra Jafree photography: Angie Abdalla

Ameena Hamid’s reputation precedes her: at just 20 years old, she is already the director and creative producer of her own theatrical production company. I first heard of her at the beginning of last year and it was a full term before we became properly acquainted. She and I were destined to meet, both being active members of LSE’s Drama Society, I had decided that she would probably be too busy and important to concern herself much with being social at uni. I thought Ameena would be too cool for me.

Of course, I wouldn’t have written that if it were true. Even with her mind-bogglingly full schedule, Ameena seems to always have time for her friends — and is rarely one to miss a drama Spoons trip. This came as a surprise even to her: “It’s really funny, because I came down to uni thinking, ‘I’m just gonna get my degree and I’m gonna go, just here for the degree… it’s not going to be a normal uni experience, I probably won’t make a lot of friends.’ And that was just not true. At all.”

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself, so let’s backtrack. Ameena is a second-year social anthropology student, a Black woman who comes from a Muslim family, she was born with one hand, and is a Gemini. Mind you, in our two-hour chat, we only arrived at her degree in the last 20 minutes. It would be safe to say that uni is a secondary or even tertiary part of her bio. The headline is Ameena Hamid Productions, the production company she started sort of by accident during her gap year.

She mainly focuses on new work, she said,

“I think there’s a lot of people who do Shakespeare really well, and I don’t need to add to that discussion. So yes, I work with new work, particularly with underrepresented voices. Mainly because that’s who I am.”

stage is.” It’s work she does for everyone, but especially for her younger self, “so that she could say, ‘That person looks like me, and that story is like mine, or flicking through a program and seeing that that name is a Muslim name.’” I get it. I remember going through programmes desperately hoping that someone like me had made it. Ameena isn’t alone in this goal, but there have to be some “trail blazers… there have to be people who want to be the first person to do that, and I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m cocky, but I’m like, yeah, that’s me. I want to do that.”

Earlier this summer, Ameena turned to Instagram to express something about the reality of being a creative woman of colour: the felt need to prove that you are more than the last project you did. The ideal is to do work that you want to do, that is not necessarily “about being Black, or about being one handed, or about being a woman, I just want to do work that’s about life.” She reminisced about going to the theatre when she was younger to watch musicals and she would connect to the characters, no matter who they were because of the “human story behind it.” “There’s this ridiculous idea that diverse theatre can’t be commercial. And it’s just wrong, I know that it’s wrong. Because it’s not about that, it’s about people relating to the story.”

Ameena’s very existence is political, she doesn’t mind it: “when you grow up in it, you kind of have to be.” At the same time, she doesn’t want political statements at the centre of every show.

Theatre producers are not in the spotlight as much as actors or directors are, making their roles hard to define, according to Ameena. “Nobody knows [what a producer is]…

It’s kind of an everything job.” While there’s a list of things that she will usually do, such as budgets and invoices, Ameena’s role varies widely depending on the demands of the show at hand and the people involved. “My favorite shows are the ones where I get to do a lot of things because I get a bit bored, just kind of paying everyone’s invoices.

And yeah, people say that the higher up you go, the less you do.” She doesn’t see herself becoming that person.

“I am a producer to tell stories... Whether I am a Black woman or not, it doesn’t affect why I do something.

Maybe that sounds super naive: I’m still an activist, I still want to increase diversity of theater. But I don’t want all of my work to be used as the voice for all Black people, to be honest, the voice for all people of color, because that happens all the time.”

Through her production company, Ameena strives to “[make] sure that that backstage is just as diverse as on-

The summer’s racial justice protests stirred many emotions in Ameena, as they have in all of us. Ameen told me there was a level of “because you’re a Black woman” she felt she

In my opinion, one that Ameena shares, producers are vastly underappreciated. “I mean, you’re the driving force behind the big practicalities of getting a show from page to stage. If it wasn’t for you ... nothing would happen. But at the same time, nobody seems to notice. ”

had to speak about what’s happening all the time. It comes back to the difficulty of taking time away from a political movement that concerns “your right to be”. She went on: I can’t watch the video of George Floyd, I can’t. And it was everywhere. It was on every social media platform, on everything. I have my own problems with the police and personal reasons that I just can’t engage with it. It’s too hard for me. And one of the things that is really difficult to do as a Black person in times like this is to let go. I don’t have to be the person fighting the fight, somebody else can. There are times where I absolutely do want to be that person... I do want to be that person pushing to make that next step. But there are some fights I don’t have the energy for because it’s so emotionally draining. And it’s so easy, I think, to go ‘We’ll just let the Black people speak on Black Lives Matter.’ But there’s an emotional attachment that isn’t there for some other people. So when you’re having that discussion, it’s a lot easier for some people to have that conversation.

Towards the end of our chat, I switched the conversation over to the struggle and opportunities of doing art, particularly the performing arts, in the middle of a pandemic.

In March, many people collectively switched to survival mode and the arts weren’t a clear priority, which makes sense. It didn’t stop many of us from missing the theatre desperately. Thankfully, creative people find creative solutions, and the industry is slowly opening up at all levels.

Although Ameena had planned for a fairly quiet summer, things didn’t turn out that way.

COVID-19 is no match for her. Ameena has been working on projects all summer, kicking off with her desire to help 2020 drama graduates whose final showcases had been cancelled, through her 2020 Graduate Spotlight initiative. She teamed up with some current and graduated LSE Drama Society members to work on the podcast play Right Ho Jeeves!, written by the very talented LSE alum Delmar Terblanche. She’s also started a podcast to give a platform for international womxn writers and directors called Fizzy Sherbert. Her work extends beyond audio: she’s producing a number of exciting real life projects, most of which are off the record. Stay tuned on her website: https://www. ameenahamidproductions.co.uk/, and her social media: @ameenahamidproductions on Instagram and @ahamidprods on Twitter. One project we can discuss is her latest play, Eating Myself, due to hit the Golden Goose stage in November. Use the offer code PERU10 for a discount!

Speaking to Ameena felt like speaking to Superwoman: she’s everywhere, all the time. She works her dream job, loves her degree, has a social life, and to top it all off, somehow still manages to get seven or eight hours of zzz’s a night. It’s hard to believe she’s real. But she is, and oh so inspiring. Ameena made the system, the cycle, the list of things you feel like you have to do, work for her. She makes me feel like I can too.

FLIPSIDE Social LSE Library’s Newest Arrival is Too Cute Part B Cottagecore Lesbians on Tiktok

Review Arts and Culture in London Sport Beveridge From Home Report

AMEENA HAMID On representation in theatre and art in the era of COVID-19

Vol 912 Sept 30 2020