Sothysen Tuyhor

As your committee member (hopefully president) for the year I plan to continue the much beloved events that IR society takes pride in, like the visit to the Global Peace Summit in Bangkok and the IR society film festival which saw great growth from the previous edition with the inclusion of introductions by professors and guest speakers for the films. The particular strong points of these events, that of traveling as well as combining social and academic events as a means of deepening understanding of international relations and fostering intercultural awareness, are aspects which I seek to expand on in the next year.

My key proposals are the initiation of another trip, this time to the Athens Democracy Forum, to expand the repertoire of trips available to members; the continuation of the film festival with an expansion to more experts to offer additional insights to the films; and more panel and expert talk events. Of particular importance, and involving the most work, are the trip and the talk events. The talk events, with enough speakers, have the opportunity to be some of the most engaging and useful events for members who wish to engage deeper with certain issues and also see inside the black box of work and research in IR. The pool of possible speakers and therefore opportunities for insight and even perhaps networking remains wide and untapped. The same goes for events like the Athens Democracy Forum. All that is needed is the motivation to organise these events.