BBK Politics 50th Anniversary: 6 questions for Birkbeck Politics Staff (Part 3)
Ali Burak Guven, Senior Lecturer In International Relations And International Political Economy, Department Of Politics. Programme Director, MSc Global Political Economy, MSc Global Governance and Emerging Powers
What subject did you teach most recently? International political economy.
What is your favourite topic to teach and why? "Late development" week in my Emerging Powers module. It covers such a wide range of themes.
Which Birkbeck alumni do you most admire (and why)? It has to be Ramsay MacDonald, for obvious reasons.
What book should every BBK politics student read? The Great Transformation, by Karl Polanyi.
Which BBK Politics module (which you don't teach) would you most like to take? Political Theory and Contemporary Politics
How would you sum up BBK Politics in one word? Groovy
Dr Jason Edwards Assistant Dean for Education, SSHP, Programme Director MSc Social and Political Theory,
What subject did you teach most recently? Political Theory; Food, Politics and Society
What is your favourite topic to teach and why? At the moment it’s my Agricultural Revolution session on Food, Politics and Society. It’s about the development of permanent agricultural settlement and the first states. There are so many sophisticated arguments (and much archaeological evidence) now that show this was a product of political and socio-economic conflict, not simply a playing out of population growth and social/ biological evolution. They remind us that there are politically realisable alternatives in the modern world to living in mass consumer societies under the direction of centralised, ‘sovereign’ states.
Which Birkbeck alumni do you most admire (and why)? I won’t mention them by name, but the department has a number of students who have recently gone on to make waves in politics. I might not always be on the same page as them politically, but I think they have gone into politics to change the world for the better, and hope to think that what they learnt from us might help them achieve that.
What book should every BBK politics student read? I can’t recommend a single book on politics to read – read lots of them! I’m a political theorist but (as I hear is usually the case) as I get older I become more and more sceptical about abstract reflections on ‘politics’. Politics is alive, active and constantly changing. If you want to understand the politics of the present through the ‘classic’ books then you need to read those that speak to the moment – right now I’m revisiting Tom Nairn’s The Break-Up of Britain fairly seriously(the reasons might be obvious).
Which BBK Politics module (which you don't teach) would you most like to take? We’ve just taken on some brilliant new colleagues – Chao-Yo, Laszlo, Laura, Jasmine and Kai – who are teaching really important things about the major problems confronting us, from climate crisis to the Ukraine war. I’d happily join any of their modules.
How would you sum up BBK Politics in one word? Political.
David Styan Lecturer, Department Of Politics
What subject did you teach most recently? Comparative foreign policy
What is your favourite topic to teach and why? Democracy and Authoritarianism; because invariably students' personal perceptions are so at variance with political realities.
Which Birkbeck alumni do you most admire (and why)? Faleh Abdul-Jabar (1946-2018) An extraordinary scholar and activist, Faleh was arguably one of Iraq's most critical and prolific intellectuals. He was simultaneously humble and humorous personally, while being a huge inspiration to scores of Arab and foreign scholars of the Middle East. He exemplifies how the Department has acted, usually discretely and away from the limelight, as an intellectual home for emigre thinkers who have had a significant impact on both the practical politics and the intellectual life of their "home" countries. Read more here https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2018/05/31/in-memoriam-faleh-a-jabar-1946-2018/
What book should every BBK politics student read? Orwell: Politics and the English Language (OK, it is an essay...)
Which BBK Politics module (which you don't teach) would you most like to take? Governing by numbers
How would you sum up BBK Politics in one word? Opportunity