When I started as chair of the International Studies programme last year, I bought a brand new paper notebook. With a nice strong cover, over one hundred empty pages were waiting to be filled with a large promise of inspired notes, ideas and observations. Now, nearing the end of my first year as chair, I have indeed filled all its pages with a huge diversity of scribbles.

Do you want to guide future first year students feel at home at International Studies? We are looking for new student mentors (2022-2023)!

On 17 February, the South and Southeast Asia Track of the BA International Studies programme hosted an academic debate on the motion: “Will India become a Superpower by 2047?”

What to read and watch this Winter holiday? According to good tradition, the International Studies Blog has collected tips from your lecturers.

In this interview, we’re talking to Bas le Cointre, third year student International Studies. During the pandemic this year, he did an internship for a renowned Dutch radio station, where he produced his own podcast series. We ask him more about this experience, and what his advice is to fellow students.

A few months ago I wrote about the walls we build between ourselves in a blog post on this website. In the current situation, with the Coronavirus going around, we are faced with yet another barrier: physical distance. What does that mean for how we interact in our International Studies Programme?

On March 22nd at precisely 16.45h, we excitedly opened the doors of Wijnhaven’s biggest lecture hall and watched more than 400 students and staff members stream into the many increasingly cramped rows of our long-awaited ‘North Korea Event’. At the grand desk below between the busy-looking organizers from BASIS, four calm and concentrated people in suits were checking their speeches and presentations one last time. Dressed in modest black, two representatives of the South Korean NGO PSCORE and one translator, seemed to direct the audience’s attention to the woman dressed in bright red. A peculiar prominence for all of us in International Studies knowing of the unprecedented enigma of the country of her childhood, family, and home – The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Do you want to help future 1st year students feel at home at International Studies? Become a student mentor! We still need a few more persons to complete the team.

Maartje Mensink, a third-year International Studies student with a focus on East Asia and Mandarin, shares her journey into the world of global democracy advocacy. Maartje recounts her experience with the NGO Democracy Without Borders (DWB), an organization that seeks to make the United Nations (UN) more democratic and representative. It has offices all over the world, filled with over 100 volunteers, but its headquarters, where Maartje was engaged, are based in Berlin.

The Programme Chair of the BA International Studies and Historian Joost Augusteijn has been consulted by various Dutch and Belgian media lately to shed his expert light on the matter of the Irish border and the Brexit negotiations. Feel like a deep dive into this subject? Find the links to radio shows like VPRO’s “OVT”, BNR nieuwsradio’s “Internationaal” and VRT’s “De ochtend”.