125 years young! Politics and International Relations celebrate milestone birthday
17 October 2024
The Department of Politics and International Relations will be kicking off the new term in style with celebrations to mark our 125th birthday!
Festivities will begin in mid-October when we’ll hold a variety of lectures, exhibitions and events to commemorate the setting up of the department which took place 125 years ago in 1899.
The department began when the University received an anonymous donation of £300 to appoint a lecturer in politics. That lecturer was Sydney Chapman who went on to be knighted and enjoyed a distinguished career in the Civil Service following academia.
Since then, although the department has been known by a variety of names including the Department of Political and Commercial Science and the Department of Economics and Political Science, our commitment to learning and research in politics and international relations has been unwavering. Our internationally renowned team of staff continues to grow and our curriculum and research always reflects current affairs, world events and the interests and needs of our student community.
Organiser of the 125th celebrations, Professor David Boucher said, “We would love for students and staff around the University to come to find out more about the history of our department as we mark this significant milestone! We’ll be holding an exhibition which illustrates early student life here and features pioneering academics such as Carole Pateman the feminist political theorist, and J Barry Jones who developed territorial politics. We want to convey a flavour of the early years of the University, and the establishment of the department, which even then included law and international relations as allied and associated subjects.”
The first in the series of events is a lecture from Professor Sergey Radchenko, “Are we in another Cold War? Historical parallels and present-day dilemmas of international politics” which takes place on 17 October. This will be followed by the opening of the exhibition of the history of the department on 21 November followed by a reception in the Senior Common Room at the School of Law and Politics and a lecture from Dr Ayesha Omar entitled, “The Liberal Engagements of Black Intellectual History in South Africa.”
More events to celebrate the department’s beginnings will take place into 2025 and will announced in due course.