Asiatic Affairs Society: Publication Officer

Hi there! I'm Margaret, and I'm an ISPS student running for Publications Officer :)

As an IR student, I've often found the lack of content covering Asian current affairs disappointing, especially in academia. Throughout the past year, I've found the community of Asiatic Affairs welcoming when it comes to discussing geopolitics, political tensions, or even just the relation of popular culture with current affairs.

I've decided to run for Publications Officer because I want to help support and facilitate the opinions of our Asian students, especially when commenting on current events close to our hearts. Asiatic Affairs has a wonderful journal and editorial column, and I've been involved in the society podcast for the past year, which means that I have experience and insight into the creation of pieces. Furthermore, while there is a high quality of in-depth and analytical pieces, I would also like to publish pieces which are more light-hearted in nature, but nonetheless covers the wide scope of current events.

Aside from being involved in UCL, I was also the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of 'Sonorous', a student-led platform for writing about humanitarian crises. This experience not only gave me valuable experience in organizing and managing a team of writers and editors, but also how to manage publications, especially regarding current affairs and international relations. If elected, I hope to create a more diverse selection of pieces to read and to write!

Hi, I'm Kai Ze, and I've been your Publication Officer for the past term! Being part of this society has been an exciting, fulfilling and intellectually stimulating experience so far, and I hope to continue working in this role to help create the kind of environment that makes that possible. Something that makes me excited about continuing in this role are the projects that we're trying out for the first time this year, like the first Asiatic Affairs journal in print! If re-elected, I'll be able to take what we learn from this experience forward into next year, to improve and expand upon. 

It's honestly been a blast so far, and I really hope I can continue reading, discussing and debating Asiatic affairs with you all as your Publication Officer!

(also since I have you here, if you're interested in contributing anything to our upcoming print journal, Transitions of Power, or to our website, email me at [email protected]. We welcome contributions on anything related to Asian current affairs, history and politics - for instance, how the war in Ukraine will affect Asia in general, or China-Taiwan tensions in particular, would be a great topic!)

Hi I'd like to put myself forward as the Publications Officer as I've really enjoyed writing for the website this year and think it would be great to help put out more great articles next year and get even more people involved. One idea is to have regular writers who can each write one short article per month so we can have interesting content on the most recent Asian current affairs posted regularly. I have also written for the Diplomacy Review and Kinesis magazines and have some experience in publishing which I'd love to build on, to help as many people as possible put out their ideas and opinions.