50th Anniversary: 6 questions for BBK Politics Staff
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Birkbeck Politics, we asked six questions to our BBK Politics staff, of varying degrees of seriousness. What have our staff been teaching, reading and thinking lately? Find out how our first two staff members answered below…
Dr Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos is Reader In European Politics, Jean Monnet Chair in Parliamentary Democracy & European Integration and Director of the MSc in European Politics And Policy (Msc)
What subject did you teach most recently? The EU Polity, i.e. what the EU is, how it operates and why.
What is your favourite topic to teach and why? The spitzenkandidaten system, i.e the competitive democratic way in which the European commission’s president was chosen in 2014 because it kills the idea that the EU is necessarily un- or anti-democratic.
Which Birkbeck alumni do you most admire (and why)? Unfair question. There are too many of them.
What book should every BBK politics student read? Karl Polanyi’s the Great Transformation or André Malraux’s la condition humaine.
Which BBK Politics module (which you don't teach) would you most like to take? Magic, Science and Religion.
How would you sum up BBK Politics in one word? Contradictory, because teaching staff disagree on lots of substantive issues of politics, we collectively contradict forces that seek to reduce instead of spreading opportunity and because we love being contradicted by well-prepared students in the classroom since this enriches the teaching process.
Dr Kai Heron, Lecturer in Politics and Program Director of Global Environmental Politics and Policy (MSc)
What subject did you teach most recently? This week my Race in the Global Political Economy class discussed the concept of surplus populations with reference to the UK and US’ Prison Industrial Complexes. With readings from Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Angela Davis, and others we examined the racialized and racializing character of the UK prison system, the role of prison labour in the British economy, and the Prison Industrial Complex’s part in reproducing capitalist economies the world over.
What is your favourite topic to teach and why? It’s hard to pick. I like to teach things that speak to my student’s everyday experience of nature, politics, the state, and the economy. Especially topics that reveal how these four subjects interrelate and co-produce one another. On that front, I like teaching the debates about socially and ecologically just transitions: the Green New Deal, climate reparations, degrowth, eco-socialism, decolonization, abolition ecology, and so on. Beyond that, I find that I begin most of my modules by approaching one aspect or another of the debates surrounding primitive accumulation and the origins of capitalism. In part, because capitalist relations of domination and exploitation are so effective at naturalizing themselves, or convincing us that ‘there is no alternative’.
Which Birkbeck Alumni do you most admire and why? We’ve had some incredible people pass through Birkbeck over the years, but I don’t know that I admire one alum more than others. I’m proud of Birkbeck’s tradition of educating London’s, the UK’s, and the world’s working classes. I think that tradition means admiring everyone who has balanced working life, care responsibilities, and the everyday stresses and strains we all face as workers with attaining a further education.
What book should every BBK politics student read? It’s tempting to pick a classic close to my heart — Marx’s Capital, Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, Jacques Lacan’s Écrits, or Maria Mies Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, Susan Buck-Morss’ Dreamworld and Catastrophe, orAmbalavaner Sivanandan’s Catching History on the Wing — but if it’s a book all politics students should read, then my choice is “They Say / I Say”: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Writing in an approachable academic style, critically appraising literature and sources, and introducing your own voice to your writing are all important skills whatever you study. They Say / I Say is the best introduction to these I’ve come across and I recommend it to all my students.
Which BBK Politics module (that you don’t teach) would you most like to take? It would have to be either Political Theory and Contemporary Politics or The Politics of the Global Food System. The first, because political theory is a brilliant thing to study and I’m curious to compare and contrast how my approach to teaching it differs from my colleagues! The second, because we have amazing food specialists in our department, and I’ve heard great things about the module from my students.