Regional Policy and Governance is a class in the geography department and in it we are looking at the rise of the significance of regional governance since the 1980s. Although in the United States we often think of regional, or state, governance I have learned that regional governance is both sub-national as well as supranational. There are regions both within states, like Wales or Catalonia, as well as at a supra-national level. The European Union, in an attempt to create more uniform infrastructure and trade has created regions around the Mediterranean Sea and around the Baltic sea, which include parts of countries both in and outside of the European Union. This has given me a lot of interesting ideas about a supra-national Kurdish region state, which is what I'm focusing on for my dissertation.
The International Politics Department holds many events and speakers and I have frequented many of these this semester. I have been regularly going to the International Politics Research Seminars, which are held every Thursday afternoon as a showcase for the PhD students to discuss their projects. Students are doing very interesting research in the department including: food security in the middle east and understanding the longevity and instability of revolutionary terrorist cells in Europe. A particularly exciting speaker was Paul Silk, who heads the Silk Commission, a committee under the Welsh Assembly Government that has created a set of recommendations for the future of devolution in Wales, including minimal tax raising powers and more legislative powers for the assembly. This was especially interesting because I read the provisional report for my Devolution and the National Assembly for Wales module first semester and it was exciting to hear what Silk had to say about the report and the future of Devolution in the United Kingdom.
I am very excited because starting this week I will be beginning an internship with Plaid Cymru, the nationalist party in Wales, as a part of my Devolution at Work module. I will be working for the local office campaigning for Mike Parker (for the National Parliament) and Elin Jones (for the Welsh Assembly). I will be doing work researching party cues and policies that the party hopes to put through if elected. As the election is May 7, this is a very exciting time to be working with political parties. Ceredigion (the county were Aberystwyth is located) is a fairly contentious seat between the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru so our candidate has a very good chance of being elected. I will be working with them through the election.
Above: Mike Parker and Elin Jones
In other exciting news, I have finally started volunteering for Ysgol Penglais School! It took forever to get the criminal background check information put through (required for all individuals who want to work with children) and we had our first session last Friday. We're going to be discussing the upcoming election, everything from the party manifestos, funding of elections, and media coverage of elections through May. We'll be concluding with a debate before the actual election and the students seem very excited about it. They had a lot of great ideas and I'm looking forward to learning about their perspectives on the UK electoral system and elections.
I am gearing up for Spring Break with my mom in Barcelona! We're both very excited to speak Spanish and enjoy the sunshine. Until then, I'll finish my post with a few pictures of spring in Wales. The daffodils (Wales' national flower) have emerged as well as the lambs!
