Forge Press #164 - February 2023

Forge Press

Student talks about her blood cancer diagnosis and symptoms to look out for

LGBT History Month: Keith Haring's immortal language of love

Is the FA doing enough to support mothers?

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What does an SU officer actually do?

Liam Hand, the Students' Union President, and other fulltime officers take a look back on their year in office so far

Liam, what has been your favourite part of being the SU President so far?

I didn’t expect how much I’d enjoy going out to student spaces. We have students who come to the forums who have felt heard and kept coming back, so that feeling that I’m working on something important is super rewarding. I get a massive amount of enjoyment from hearing people’s voices, implementing a solution, and seeing it do something positive.

And the worst part?

I think it’s navigating the bureaucracy and politics of the relationships with people like the University who move at a glacial rate. They approach everything like an academic rather than somebody who wants to get something done – it’s like, you don’t need a 20 page report on why the stats you’re looking for are the

right stats, and sometimes that can mean, like with bursaries, that students aren’t getting the support they need when they need it.

How well do you feel you’ve achieved your manifesto promises so far?

The biggest thing, because it was the most urgent thing, has been cost of living stuff. Committing to a comprehensive support plan and I think I’ve done pretty well with that; we’ve had cheaper alternatives, we’ve lobbied the university to increase hardship funds and they’re now reviewing their bursary policy and I’m still involved in those conversations. There’s a community fridge about to be set up and just about every way we could have made our space better for students during the crisis we have.

Renters stuff has been a bit slower partially because

of the overlap between myself and the Welfare and Sustainability Officer, so this upcoming semester there will be more focus around renters rights, especially with rent strikes going on at other universities. We want students to have the whole toolkit they need.

How has your experience been so far?

The year in the role has been fantastic, often very challenging but really enjoyable. I feel like where I started six months ago as a person and where I am now are totally different – I feel like I’ve got a decade of experience already.

What has surprised you about the role?

Two things: how in demand you are as President, and how much people do actually appreciate the things you put in place. When doing the elections, you think you can

do anything but then you get into the role and realise it’s a lot to process, and you’re getting pulled into lots of ... full story on page 4

Forge Press supports student suicide data law

Harry's Law would require coroners to inform universities if a student death is registered as suicide, require universities to publish these statistics annually, and allow universities to be put into special measures in cases of the rate being higher than the national average.

Full story on page 4

SU President, Liam Hand

FORGE PRESS EDITORIAL TEAM ALL CONTACT DETAILS AT FORGEPRESS.ORG

Editor-in-Chief Chloe Aslett

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Break Editors x2 Vacant

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Lifestyle Editor Vacant

Letter from the Editor

Hi everyone,

We hope you are settling in well to the second semester of the year, and are feeling optimistic about the exams and deadlines that have just passed!

February is LGBT History Month, and we have aimed to platform this in our content with a rundown of all the best LGBT-friendly sports clubs in Sheffield, a look back at the impact of Moonlight on perceptions of LGBT relationships and intersectionality, and a spectacular arts spotlight on artist Keith Haring’s legacy.

As I am sure we’re all aware, another period of UCU strikes has begun. We have a lot of coverage in this issue about the strikes, including when they’re happening, why they’re happening, and opinions about what students can do to help.

But, even for the many students who support the strikes, the action can have an impact on students’ well-being. I want to use this space again to highlight the support available. There are plenty of resources at the university and around the city for various levels of mental health difficulties, including the University Health Service, the Student Mental Health Counselling and Therapies Service, and Nightline. There is a lot more

information about this on the SU website, along with wider health and well-being help, and other resources such as money and housing advice.

On the topic of mental health, we also want to draw your attention to Harry’s Law, a campaign Forge Press and university newspapers nationwide are supporting, which would ensure universities have to record and publish data on student suicides. This would hopefully result in improved awareness and standards of support for students across the country. Please scan the QR code or search for Harry’s Law petition online to support the campaign.

As always, if you want to get involved with Forge Press at any level, all the details are at the bottom right of this page. Our EGM to fill the vacant positions on the left is also open until Sunday evening! Find our contact details, all the content from this paper, and more at forgepress.org, and thanks for picking up a copy.

Chloe Aslett Editor-in-Chief

big picture

Manager and Games Editor, Carla the Peak District and dog walking de-stress after exams

If you’re looking for a way to spend your Saturday morning exploring the Peak District, Stanage Edge or Bamford Edge is the perfect place to start. You can also go and visit the Robin Hood Cave, which is hidden away in the edge of the cliff face. My housemates and I used to

BorrowMyDoggy app, which connects dog owners with people who, as they describe on their website, need to fill the ‘dog void’ in their life. We ended up doing a threehour hike, which turned out to be a great way to destress after the deadline and exam period!

NEWS

£4.4m to University of Sheffield from businesses related to the arms trade in 2021/2022 alone

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OPINION

Why is Britain’s economy doing so poorly?

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OPINION

Our Spring of discontent will be worse if students fail to support strikes

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FEATURES

Stop saying Nihao to me

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SCIENCE & TECH

Reversing ages in mice: What does this mean for us?

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GAMES

The 2023 games releases to look forward to

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SCREEN

LGBT History Month: A look back at Moonlight

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Photo Credit: Callum Penn

President: Liam Hand

(continued from front page) ... interesting meetings but it’s important to keep focus on what matters. You have to consider how many students you’re helping with every decision.

What are the key skills an SU President needs?

There’s not just one way to be president. You could be an ambitious blue sky thinker or you can be that driver who gets things done and pulls people together. I think I’m the latter. Otherwise, I think you need to be really adaptable, team-focussed, and prepared to listen to

people but also know when to push your ideas. Patience and resilience are also key. And boundaries, I’m here nine to five and then I leave; in that time, I’m focussed and working, but you do need to be a human outside this building too.

What advice would you give to your successor?

You get elected in March, you don’t start until June, so get to know your team over the first couple months. You’re working with these people every day and an SU officer team lives and dies on whether they can work

and communicate together. Also build relationships with the uni and other SU’s nationally from the get-go. Just because we’re the UK’s best SU doesn’t mean we’re the best at everything.

Favourite place to go out out in Sheffield?

I’m torn between – I really like Yo Karaoke – and Pop Tarts is fun. Club Tropicana at Leadmill is also good so those would be my top three. But Yo Karaoke would be my go-to. I’m not good at it, but I put on a good performance!

Education Officer: Alison Romaine

Alison reflected that her time as Education Officer has been ‘challenging’.

She said: “I think you go in very naïve. You slowly learn all the different structures, and then you spend time trying to unlearn them and go back to what you were thinking at the start and trying to implement that. It’s been challenging and my confidence has increased.

“The University works at, maybe, a five year time scale, you’re working on a one year time scale, so how do you make it effective for future students to still make change. You can set up relationships or structures that will support a future officer. Their name might be on something really successful – fine, but you might have done all of the groundwork – also fine.

“I don’t care about that, it’s just about making sure the SU is the best for students. Being a custodian of that is a huge, huge privilege.”

She addressed her initial policies:

Collaboration with national SUs to lobby for accessible education:

“There’s Russell Group collective that’s been established and Liam’s heavily involved in that, and from the maintenance loan side, I’m currently working

in that space. It’s a really effective space to mirror the Russell Group universities in terms of lobbying power. We’re also talking a lot to northern SUs. I would love this for the next officer team, that we’re establishing connections here and how powerful the north could be.

“This is also a next government thing, which is why a lot of the work you do is to set it up for the next people. Maintenance loans for example – I believe in free, fair, totally funded education, which is gone. Right now, our government wouldn’t do that, but a future one may.”

Ensure fair assessments and retain online assessment choice:

“It’s something we say so much in meetings – what are the learnings of Covid? We know the adjustments through Covid increased inclusivity to assessment, it made assessment more equitable, let’s keep it in.

“That’s easy for us to say, but that takes a lot and often gets stuck in committees –the University is like, ‘oh let’s set up a committee for that’, which we have done, it’s a space where officers and students can discuss how to make education as inclusive as possible, which would include diverse

forms of assessment, online assessment options. There are departments that do it in pilot ways, but in terms of putting a policy for that across the University, that has to happen in that committee.

“The University hasn’t promised to back to all online stuff but we are still justifying the case of why.” Champion decolonised and sustainable education through teach-outs:

“There was a teachout. It’s called Inside Out: Reimagining Education, which I hope the SU can continue as a series that we do all the time, I think the SU should be a place of knowledge exchange and alternative ways of learning.

“We had teach-outs last round of strikes and this semester, we got some more booked.”

“On 15 February there’s a solidarity teach-out, with the aim of getting all our students and staff together and there’ll be speakers talking about what solidarity means in today’s society, and hopefully making a bit more of a colourful campus on a strike day.” Strike compensation:

“To get compensation, students have to complain, but it’s a really disempowering process, it’s

very long, and it’s such a funny conversation with the Uni when we say, ‘you need to improve your system so we can complain against you easier’, that’s an interesting conversation.

“It’s so hard to change a system; there’s comms to tell students to use it, but also we need to make it easier, and that’s something we’re doing now, there should be comms on our Instagram soon, and keep your eyes peeled for a student

generated campaign that focuses on this sort of thing.”

Cost of living:

“The Uni increased their Financial Support Fund to £3m, which is significant and better than most universities, and any student can access that. If you’re experiencing the cost of living, you can apply to the fund and you should get support.”

International & Community Officer: Anna Fedotova

to Sheffield for international students, boosting access to scholarships for international students, and collaborating with the SU and local communities to showcase international students’ cultural backgrounds.

Fedotova said: “When I got into the role, as well as international scholarships, sanctuary scholarships for refugees were brought to my attention, and I am now involved in a university sanctuary steering group where I represent students. It was nice to see a part of my manifesto coming into reality”

“I haven’t begun looking into scholarships for EU students yet, I’m still looking at what other universities are doing in that area and, even if I don’t get the chance to make much improvement within my year, I’ll still be able to pass on my research to the next officer.”

accommodation and storage that I think will be really helpful which will be shared before the next summer holidays.

Fedotova also spoke about a plan to help international students with the cultural transition that she’s currently working on.

So far, some of Fedotova’s proudest moments in the role have been when she’s brought people together. She said: “The international cultural evening and the number of societies we have interested to perform this year is overwhelming, it’s amazing after quite a challenging few years and low engagement in university-related activities. It’s great to see people getting stuck in and being curious about one another.

the best experience they can have.”

Where she’s had success in many places, one of the biggest challenges Fedotova faces is getting the ball moving on change within the University, especially when her ideas can seem particularly ambitious.

Looking forwards to the elections, Fedotova highlights that applicants need to be ready for some challenge and confrontation but that that’s a good thing.

Anna Fedotova, the SU’s International and Community Officer, won her position last March with a strong 800 vote majority, and

now is continuing to work on the promises made in her manifesto.

Fedotova had made plans to focus on easing the move

“At the start of my term I worked easing the process of moving for international students and I found some resources about short term

“The responsibility of being an officer is also really rewarding, there’s always a thought in my mind when I’m sat in meetings that I’m talking for so many students who all have different experiences, and I always want to give those students

“There can be quite a lot of confrontation in terms of meeting students who are really needing of support who ask things like ‘Are you doing enough?’ that can cause a bit of imposter syndrome like ‘Am I doing enough?’ but you can’t be scared of that and you just need to know how to reassure yourself. There is a lot of support in SU too that staff can provide so use it.

“Hopefully the next officer will feel like this job is very rewarding, because I feel so.”

Activities and Development Officer: Rose Franchi

Rose Franchi was elected the Activities and Development Officer last summer and has since made it her mission to support societies in the best way she can. Since taking up the role, Franchi has fulfilled most of her objectives from her original manifesto and adapted the others so that she can achieve her goals before the end of her second semester.

Originally, Franchi set out to improve communication for students in general, but primarily societies, as well as providing support for committee members through increased access to digital training. Additionally, she aimed to improve accessibility and inclusivity for postgraduate students.

So far, Franchi has made changes to help societies and make support for them more accessible; one of her first projects as Activities and Development Officer

was to install storage space for student groups to store their personal belongings relating to society activities, like sports equipment. She has also been working with Alison Romaine, the Education Officer, and Lissi Abnett, the Postgraduate Students Officer, in order to increase the support available to postgraduates.

One of Franchi’s proudest moments as Activities and Development Officer was the Activities Fair during Freshers’ Week: “I’d been working on the Activities Fair throughout the summer and seeing the fruits of your labour was really cool. Going out and speaking to loads of student societies, getting to know them and putting names to faces was really cool. To see the whole building just buzzing with activity was one of the highlights of my year for sure.”

On the flip side, the UCU strikes last semester undoubtedly had a serious impact on the student body, and learning how to navigate this period was one of the more stressful moments of the role.

“It was quite hard work as a team figuring out how we could best support students with that,” Franchi said. “I remember that being quite a difficult time but we got there in the end and I hope that our stance and what we offer to students during the strike periods have been helpful and useful.”

Looking to the future, Franchi is hopeful that she can continue to fulfil her original goals and offer even more support to students. She hopes to run society support sessions, providing more in person networking and collaboration for student groups, as well as organising more postgraduate events.

In the meantime, Franchi is looking forward to Society Showcase Week (commencing 27th February) which will enable societies to exhibit their talents and

activities. With the upcoming elections in mind, Franchi offered a word of advice to her successor: “Be confident in your decisions - you were elected for a reason.”

Welfare and Sustainability Officer: Samuel Timson

he wanted a fund in place to support students, which succeeded in becoming a reality in November when the cost of living hub was announced, using extra funds given to the £3m Financial Support Fund.

companies are now included on that list.

“On the digital screens you wouldn’t have seen, ‘Shell –come and apply for a job’ before, but you won’t for certain now because it’s part of our policy.”

we’re pushing for SNUG to be properly launched and more publicly known.”

Sam took up the position after last year’s Ness Mambingo, who he says he worked closely with. His candidacy campaign offered a plethora of policies that largely targeted concerns with housing, student wages and repayments, and the cost of living.

A year later, Sam reflected on his time in the role, stating: “You sort to start of understand how everything takes its time, and that with the University it can

be difficult to get anything done. They like to take the least amount of risk possible and sometimes it’s like: ‘but you know it’s for the best, why are you hindering in such a bureaucratic way?’ There’s so many things you wouldn’t think to be checked.

“Other than that, it’s been exciting, it’s been really good experience. All the officers will be gutted when we have to leave in the summer.”

In his policies to address the cost of living, Sam said

Other successes from his original manifesto include introducing a bursary for students in unpaid placements, which is now in place, and improving student working conditions. The Students’ Union is now real living wage accredited, and the University raised the minimum wage to £11.03/ per hour – well above the current national minimum wage and its anticipated increase (due to be implemented in April), and the real living wage. Sam’s manifesto also pledged to remove unsustainable companies and arms dealers from the University. He said: “On Monday, I submitted my proposed changes to the advertising and sponsorships policy for the students’ union, and fossil fuel

There is still work to be done; the presence of companies on campus whose portfolios extend to the manufacture of weapons and combat vehicles and/or research for manufactures of such products is still contested. The Diamond was occupied by students in protest of such practices in November.

His goal to keep the worst offending landlords on energy and environmental ratings out of SU opportunities have been reached too. “The law is changing in about two or three years. We’re trying to have input in house – SNUG is a University, Hallam, and Council-wide initiative, and to be ‘SNUG approved’ you have to have an energy performance of at least a ‘D’. In the next couple of months

Wellbeing and Sport Officer: Iwan James

The 2022-2023 Sheffield Students Union school year saw Iwan James elected as its Wellbeing and Sports officer, a position that Iwan has held since June of 2022.

For his original campaign, Iwan ran on three main policy points that he intended to complete if he was elected for his position: boosting inclusivity, establishing a five-year plan coinciding with Sport Sheffield that would fulfil student interest, and improving mental health accessibility.

His inclusivity policy is based on a main idea in which each club at the university would be given a gold, silver, or bronze ranking for how inclusionary each club is regarding BAME, LGBT+, mature, international and disabled students and what they are doing to improve their inclusivity.

Iwan said: “Currently,

the work is still being done behind the scenes to finalise the mark scheme and master document of the scheme but I’m hoping to have this ready within the coming weeks and to pass it as a policy in the SU council so that it can have a longer legacy.”

The bigger step that he made towards his goal for inclusivity within the ‘Black and Gold Community’ is the newly implemented LGBT+ only gym sessions and the trans-only swim sessions.

He worked on this alongside Jamie Shipp, the SU’s parttime LGBT+ Officer.

Iwan said: “Last semester, following a consultation asking LGBT+ students their experiences in sport and the gym, which highlighted how uncomfortable certain areas in sport were for LGBT+ people, we ran a four week period for each session with the gym hour on a Sunday and the swim session on a

Tuesday.”

The feedback on this project was positive. They plan to run this trial for another four weeks on a different day this semester in order to improve turnout.

His five-year plan is still in the works as he figures out, alongside Sport Sheffield, what exactly it is that the student body would like to see. With this planning, Iwan also has the desire to give students a broader sense of all the ways that Sport Sheffield and sports at the university can impact the community and wellbeing support.

Since wellbeing is the second half of this position, Iwan has been working to make sure that mental health accessibility is not a lost cause among other sport-related projects on his resume. This past semester he created wallet-sized wellbeing outreach cards,

However, one of Sam’s other housing policies to keep an eye on landlords fell through. A platform for students to sing their praises, and voice their concerns in an attempt to shame landlords into being better won’t work. He said: “Turns out, you can’t say bad things about landlords, apparently that’s slander. I think there’s overall concern about how much we say around bad landlords. At the beginning of our term there was a piece done by Shelter about landlords and they’d been taken to court and lost.”

On playing his part, Sam said: “I think it’s a mentality of: no success is your own, you’re leaving a legacy of success. In my head I see the successes as not of me personally, it’s the success of the job. It’s not the name that you have, it’s the email that you have, and so what can you do to help make sure the role stays on the right path.”

built in with QR-codes that take you to numerous mental health services online. The idea was created in the hopes that the card would stay on you without you realising, just in case it was needed.

Looking ahead to the second semester of the year, he said, “I’m hoping to run a more specific wellbeing campaign this semester as at times that part of my role has been under-represented”.

Over £4m from arms trade businesses for University of Sheffield in past year

The University of Sheffield received a combined £4.4m from Rolls Royce, Boeing, BAE Systems, GKN, Cobham, and QinetiQ in 2021-2022 alone.

FOI disclosures obtained by Councillor Minesh Parekh last year found the University of Sheffield had received at least £72m from arms trade since 2012, with £4.4m of this in the last year alone.

A joint US Army/UK Ministry of Defence grant of £1.2m was also awarded to the University for an ‘intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance’ engineering project in 2020. Demilitarise Education,

an activist group which has further pointed out the implications of the recent funding, said: “While resistance against the militarisation of the University of Sheffield from groups like the Sheffield Action Group, who occupied the Diamond last year, University leadership continues to ignore student voices. [We] are calling for the University to end all ties to the arms trade, and to sponsor peaceful, sustainable innovation instead.”

The group has also highlighted the extent to which the arms industry is embedded into the University’s institutions; the

Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre has connections with and conducted research for Boeing, Airbus, Atomic Weapons Establishment, BAE Systems, Raytheon, GKN, and Rolls Royce.

The group aims to ‘build the most extensive database on university partnership with the global arms trade and build a movement of creative activism.’ Their database found almost £620m of university investments in militarised partnerships across the UK. They have created an online petition to push universities to sever ties with arms companies and reinvest

in sustainable and peaceseeking sectors.

A spokesperson from the University of Sheffield, said: “The University has a wide range of research, development and learning partnerships that work to further innovation, provide opportunities for students and find solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

“Our connections with industrial partners mean we can help to influence positive change and accelerate more sustainable manufacturing practices – making things faster, cheaper and greener to support our regional and national economy. For

example, our work in highperformance lightweight materials has led to the production of lighter, more fuel-efficient cars and planes.

“We have a code of ethics for all of our research and innovation, which ensures there is rigorous governance in place.

“We are also committed to providing our students with information about a wide range of organisations offering placements and graduate jobs at our careers fairs, so they can make personal informed decisions about their future careers.”

Universities to face disruption again from UCU strikes

The UCU has announced 18 days of strike action across seven weeks in February and March, as pay and pensions continue to divide.

The strike timetable covers the following dates:

Wednesday 1 February

Thursday 9 and Friday 10 February.

Tuesday 14 – Thursday 16 February.

Tuesday 21 – Thursday 23 February.

Monday 27 – Thursday 2 March.

Thursday 16 and Friday 17 March.

Monday 20 – Wednesday 22 March.

The University and Colleges Employers’

Association produced a pay rise offer of 4-5 per cent –higher for some lower salaried roles – earlier in the month, which was rejected by unions on the basis it was below inflation and not a meaningful rise to deal with the cost of living crisis.

During this period of strike action, the University of Sheffield has said it will remain open, the majority of teaching will go ahead as usual, and exams will continue to take place. Students should assume classes, exams, and deadlines remain the same unless notified otherwise.

Members of the University and Colleges Union last participated in strikes in November last year, when

an estimated 70,000 walked out in their largest strike performed so far. The UCU anticipate similar numbers, and claim this new round will be ‘the biggest series of strikes ever to hit UK university campuses.’

In an address to UCU members, General Secretary Jo Grady said the group had given employers enough time to negotiate and find an alternative to the need for strike action, and that ‘the ball is firmly in their court’, but that enough has not been done. The group would not stop until they receive an offer that Ms Grady ‘would be proud as General Secretary’ to put to members.

Why is Britain's economy doing so poorly?

Does anyone remember the show Who Dares Wins? Teams would bid on how many correct answers they could give to a subject list, for example Premier League winners since 1975. If the show were to be resurrected, I reckon a good category would be issues with the British economy. How many could you name? Most people would have a chance of naming at least seven or eight and thus, it would make quite an entertaining and engaging round. I will, rather restrictively, discuss just three and how they have contributed to the somnolent growth of the last decade or so.

Rishi Sunak has pledged to halve inflation, but is yet to enunciate how his government will do so. Inflation will come down due to measures such as the energy price freeze, save astronomically priced goods rising to absurd levels, but whether it will have anything to do with other government initiatives such as freeports is sceptical at best. The ghost of Christmas past, Liz Truss, and Sunak are right to highlight that growth will decrease inflationary pressures, as there will be more money to chase goods, but whether or not

the former knew, or the latter knows, how to actually achieve this remains to be seen.

The first problem is that austerity inhibited investment, and therefore, acted against growth and encouraged inflationary pressure. In austere times consumers are told they do not have enough wealth and are discouraged from spending. Thus, consumption reduces in tandem with investment. Why would one invest in a product if the product cannot be consumed? The lack of both private and public investment leads to a shrinking national income; leaving more people without

healthier position. National debt increased during the Cameron and Osborne years and whilst the deficit did decrease, growth levels throughout were meagre. As the great Liberal philosopher Thomas Paine argued, ‘no nation ought to be without debt’, but debt without progress is futile.

jobs and seeking help from the state, which increases government expenditure on unemployment benefits and so forth. Austerity, therefore, only ostensibly reduces government spending and fails in its raison d’etre to leave the public finances in a

A perennial problem for the UK economy over the last decade has been pitiful productivity. This is directly linked to the investment problem. However, more fundamentally, the current chaos, regarding industrial disputes, both exposes and adds another layer to this problem. Striking workers should be shown solidarity, particularly regarding conditions within work. Exhaustive and perilous conditions have caused concern amongst staff, particularly in the NHS, for decades and has encouraged an exodus from the medical profession. The same is true of teaching. Education in particular is vital for economic growth and a healthy worker, who can fall on adequate care if it is required, is a more productive one. In capitalistic terms, is a worker not happier if they have more money? Solving the strikes is key, admittedly in a roundabout way, to conquering the productivity problem.

Boosting productivity in

the private sector is hardly straightforward, but would be aided by expanding the successful four-day working week pilot scheme for businesses. 95% of the businesses taking part have said that they have witnessed increased levels of productivity, or similar levels, since taking these steps.

Supply is also a quandary. Brexit has allowed politicians such as Suella Braverman to influence Tory immigration policy - her defiance of Truss’ calls in October for increased immigration, and the fanatical far-rights ferocious reaction to such proposals, is perhaps part of what brought down Truss’ premiership, as it precipitated Braverman’s resignation and the pandemonium that ensued. Immigration is necessary, and the lack of supply in this sense, particularly postCOVID, has been detrimental to economic recovery. With the country close to full employment and an everageing population, moving people into the workforce is vital.

Another idea lost on those inside Number Ten, is the importance of housing to economic growth. Sunak is behest to his nimbyist backbenchers, which unfortunately means his impulses to build must be repressed. This has been true for Conservative premiers

for over a decade. Since 2010, roughly 1.4 million homes have been built, a number which sounds gargantuan, but in reality is tiny. With around 1.6 million households in need of social housing and regions in need of regeneration, house building is the key to ‘levelling-up’. It stimulates local economies, simply by bringing people to them, but also by giving employment to local tradesmen and increased incentives to, and support for, local business. Building was the ballast to Attlee’s ‘Jerusalem’, and thus, an ambitious housebuilding program across the UK’s regions should be at the forefront of any growth agenda. This could also encourage a shift in how houses are seen in the UK. As writer Will Self has argued, ‘houses should not be cash cows’; the provision of housing should be seen as a basic right to citizens of this country. Hence, the bulk of this housing built should be social; this would encourage the deflation of extortionate housing prices, making the market more accessible for all.

Thus, the woes of our economy have been austerity, productivity and supply. We need to build more houses, whilst remedying the former ills, to encourage growth.

Rory Currie (he/him)

Credit: Flickr

Another idea lost on those inside Number Ten, is the importance of housing to economic growth

"

Staying in Sheffield: Why do so many graduates choose to remain in the steel city?

TikTok is nothing short It’s been revealed that in 2021, The University of Sheffield had a 40% student retention rate after graduation. A retention rate shows how many students choose to stay in their university city or town after they graduate. For me, this is an unsurprising statistic as I also decided to continue studying at the university, after completing my Bachelors degree. In hindsight, it was the easiest decision of my life.

When I finished my degree in July 2021, the UK was finally emerging from its last lockdown and we were starting to remember what normality felt like. In April of that year, hairdressers, libraries and museums reopened; in May, up to 30 people were allowed to mix outdoors. Pubs, restaurants and cinemas welcomed us again with open arms. When July 2021 came, nightclubs were allowed to re-open and it more or less felt like life had resumed. I remember the excitement I felt going on my first proper night out for what felt like decades. The summer of 2021 really did feel that little bit sweeter; yet, I did feel a remorseful pang in my chest. That past year had been hard. Studying in my bedroom for hours on end in my final year had been mind-numbingly boring and

I had started to notice all of my housemates’ little foibles and quirks. At first, they seemed endearing, but after several months of forced imprisonment, they had become almost unbearable.

I felt… cheated. University was supposed to be the most exciting and sociable experience of my life and I could not believe that a third of it had been spent doing puzzles, baking bread and listening to audiobooks in lockdown. So first and foremost, I returned to Sheffield for further study to claim what was rightfully

that make it one of the most incredible places to live in. Let me explain with a couple of examples…

mine – an exciting, sociable and fun re-do of my final year. I had rewound the clock and this time, I was ready.

I could have studied for my masters anywhere. But for me, it had to be the steel city. I’ve been lucky enough to live in many different parts of the world, but Sheffield has been the only place that felt like ‘home’. Why this is the case, I’m not entirely sure. I think it’s a unique combination of distinct features about the university, city and county

It's nearly impossible to talk about Sheffield without somebody blurting out that it has the highest ratio of trees to people of any European city. Yes, it’s a nice little factoid that will come in handy years from now in a pub quiz. But how does it actually translate to real life? For me, Sheffield’s green credentials are best expressed in its parks, and boy oh boy, do you have a lot to choose from. In the city alone, you can visit Concord Park, Crookes Valley Park, Firth Park, Endcliffe Park, Weston Park, Sheffield Botanical Gardens, Bole Hill and Rivelin Valley Park; just to name a few. My personal favourite is Crookes Valley Park. It’s an excellent place to hang out in the summer and a popular spot for BBQs. The flowering cherry blossom is a spectacular site to behold. It’s not Sheffield’s most impressive park, but it’s a reliable staple in any student’s daily routine as hundreds of students flock past it in their daily commute into the university. For me, walking past those ever-present cherry blossom trees is like saying hello to a reliable friend.

I do consider myself a bit of a coffee connoisseur and when it comes to

cafes, Sheffield does not disappoint. Head into the city centre and it’ll be hard to decide which artisan coffee shop to try first. Perhaps you want a cosy and quaint atmosphere, in which case you’ll want to sample the coffee at Steam Yard. Maybe you want a bit more space for a lengthy study session, in which case 200° is your best bet. But, if you find yourself in the Broomhill area, it’s best to stop by Năm Sông for a delicious cup of joe in a more relaxed atmosphere with a special Vietnamese twist.

Jacob Whittle, 24, is a 2021 graduate from the University of Sheffield with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He knew he wanted to stay in Sheffield and immediately began an EngD in Sustainable Railway Infrastructure within the University’s Rail Innovation and Technical Centre. He said: “I stayed at the University because of the state of the art facilities which are available, as well as the opportunity to work with world leading researchers

across multiple disciplines. Alongside that, Sheffield is one of the only British cities which has both a lively city centre and access to the Peak District right from your doorstep - something I didn’t want to leave behind. There’s no doubt that Sheffield is a special place to study. I could easily drone on for hours about why I love this city. I could talk about the infamouslyfriendly locals or the fact the peak district is on your doorstep. I could talk about the legendary nights out on offer which are bound to suit every taste. I could even talk about the city's industrial heritage of steel forging and manufacturing that makes me proud to call myself an honorary northerner. But when it comes down to it, the reason I’m still here, six years after first discovering this place, is simple. It’s a beautiful city that has so much to offer, to everyone from all walks of life. Thanks for being my home Sheffield, I appreciate you more than you know.

Credit: Elliot Green

Olivia Mustafa (she/her)

I could easily drone on for hours about why I love this city.

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Crookes Valley Park (Credit: Paulo Margari via Flickr)

Students must show solidarity with our striking teachers if we are to have any hope of a fairer higher education.

Over the last 8 months, the UK has faced a wave of industrial action not seen since the 1970s. Sectors such as transport, postal services, schools, and even the NHS are engaging in mass walkouts. The strikes are a response to realterm pay cuts against the backdrop of spiralling inflation and rising prices. Yet, despite the deepening crisis, negotiations have hardened. This has led some commentators to predict further turbulence in the coming months. To quote Elle Hunt of the Guardian, a ‘new winter of discontent’ looms.

This week has only confirmed her predictions as the University and College Union (UCU) has expanded on its three day walkout from last November, and announced 18 strike dates between now and late March.

The UCU comprises 120,000 lecturers, researchers, and administrative staff across

150 universities, including 1600 at Sheffield. Besides its current requests to match wage increases with inflation, the UCU is also engaged in a decade-long dispute over threats to pensions. On top of this, the UCU is committed to eliminating casualisation practices such as zero hours contracts, especially in regard to Black, Asian and ethnic minorities staff who disproportionately suffer from such precarious conditions, the UCU reports.

during his first 100 days in office. This is the lowest since records began. Since then, despite him saying the ‘door is always open’ for discussion with healthcare union workers, it seems he has deliberately sabotaged any unions attempts to reach a settlement.

Allow me to speak for all, especially those from a working or lower middle class background, when I say that we also feel the cost of living pinch. The cost of renting student accommodation has risen by

Unfortunately, this latest extension of strike action impacted many students at

a time of vital preparation for the exam period. This is especially true for third year undergraduates, as their final year counts more towards their overall degree, but also true for second years, both of whom will be deprived of full support and facilities. This could mean the difference between passing and failing. While for those without exams (such as myself), the situation may appear less critical, the upcoming months will bring the crucial early stages of the dissertation process. One of my own tutors regrettably pointed out that one dissertation course has been ‘decimated’ by the strikes, with only 1 out of 5 scheduled teaching hours going ahead for that group. Regardless of the clear impact on the student body, this should not be attributed to the UCU’s decisions and actions. Although they are taking strike action, this has less to do with the recalcitrance of the unions and more to do with a conscious strategy pursued by the government to bolster its slump in the polls. According to YouGov, Rishi Sunak has managed a

approval rating

In the rail industry, the government reinserted non-negotiable clauses that compromised the safety of the public into improved agreements reached between the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union (RMT) and network rail. This meant that the RMT was forced to reject the improved, but still below inflation offer of 7% (in practice a real terms pay cut). The government’s insidious logic pertains to all the strikes: deliberately prolong action until the damage to the public becomes so unbearable that they turn against the unions. Additionally, the unions have also had to grapple with a ‘Labour’ party appearing to emulate the government’s style. Keir Starmer’s obsession with electability - consonant with his assurances to the Confederation of British Industry of further austerity - has come with the edict that no shadow cabinet members are to be seen on the picket lines. Meanwhile, pay for academic staff has decreased in real terms by 19.3% over the last ten years, reports the Independent, with some staff on zero-hour contracts reportedly being forced to use food banks if classes don’t go ahead as reported by The Guardian. An OpenDemocracy survey last year found that on average, university staff now work an extra two days a week unpaid. Teaching assistants are working an average of over 64 hours a week, 26 hours over the legal maximum.

To put it bluntly, the UCU has had no other option than to strike. A lack of political engagement means its members must either accept exploitation and poverty or take industrial action. Although firmly in the same boat, the problem remains that we students lack the organisational capacity to take the same action.

27% in the last six years. Not to mention that many of us are yet to be compensated for a year of lockdown lectures shamefully charged at the full rate. Those repeating a year due to the Covid-19 disruption might bear a further cost to their time and finances.

The problem here is clearly not the employees but the university management. The introduction of tuition fees was designed to incentivise competition and free up government spending on public services. 20 years later, the workers of those public services are striking due to pay cuts. Our vicechancellor takes home £279,000 a year according to the University’s annual financial report, whilst students foot the bill through extortionate rents and fees paid for a computer screen. Staff and students are two sides of the same coin, but the problem for us is that we lack the option to strike. This means that, however annoying the strikes are, we must get behind the staff in their dispute. If we do not, then we lose the only viable buffer between us and those bent on profiteering from our education. If they can defeat a unionised workforce, just imagine how they would seek to further exploit nonunionised students. Our support will help avert this situation, in terms of both our education and wider society. I am urging students to join the picket lines on the aforementioned dates. Otherwise, it will be us next.

This is to do with a conscious strategy purused by the government to bolster its slump in the polls.

Joe Silcock (he/him)

Staff and students are two sides of the same coin, but the problem for us is that we lack the option to strike. This means that, however annoying the strikes are, we must get behind the staff in their dispute.

Our spring of discontent will be worse if students fail to act

Image credit: Unsplash

many people could mistake that for university life”: The symptoms to look out for with Hodgkin Lymphoma

Ruby Watson (She/Her)

The first thing Seren noticed was a small peasized lump on her neck. She didn’t really think too much of it, comparing the lump to a swollen lymph node. However, as time went on, the lump got bigger and hard. She also noted that along with this, she experienced neck pain after drinking alcohol.

“I had gone out for some drinks and woke up the next day and my neck was in so much pain,” she said. She later found out that these hard lumps were in fact tumours.

Seren Ashburner, a second-year English Literature student at the University of Sheffield, is now taking a break from studying until September after being diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin Lymphoma, a blood cancer. With her time off, she wants to raise awareness of the symptoms to look out for. She would also like to reassure anybody who may be experiencing the symptoms outlined in this article not to panic, as this type of cancer is treatable and curable.

Seren said her symptoms could easily be brushed off among students and young people, describing the symptoms related to alcohol

and extreme tiredness as “everyday” and “common” for students.

“There are so many young people who could mistake that for university life,” she said.

Seren explained that swollen lymph nodes can make diagnosing a disease particularly difficult because they can appear for any reason as an immune response.

healthy are soft, movable. You can squish them around. They can be quite tender as well, because they’re obviously for responding to infection.”

She emphasised that not everyone gets lumps with Hodgkin Lymphoma. Which, in her words, “is even more confusing.” She says her consultant told her that some people only have lumps inside their body and they can’t see them. Seren explained that this was also the case for her, saying: “There’s ones in my chest you can’t see.”

In addition, Seren experienced breathlessness and chest pain. She said: “That’s because I have cancer in my chest, but apparently a lot of people get that as well as a cough.”

She also stated that a cough would be a cause for concern if you find yourself coughing and not knowing why, not being able to link it to something like a virus.

She said: “If after about a month you notice they’re still there, and especially if they go hard, that’s a red-flag. I didn’t know that until my doctor told me.”

Places to look out for swollen or hard lumps include your neck, armpit, and groin.

Seren also explained: “Lymph nodes that are

Seren spoke about how her symptoms were “brushed off for being like a chest infection” because she was previously ill with a horrible cough. Once she began to experience chest pain, the doctors gave her a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, but the next day Seren received a phone call to tell her they had found a mass in her chest.

Seren described the experience as scary, saying that “it’s something you don’t expect to be told.” She was reassured by the doctors that the cancer is treatable and curable.

She said: “Because modern medicine is so advanced now and the treatments are so good, it is one of those cancers that are so treatable.”

Moreover, Seren noted that she was experiencing extreme tiredness, the kind that “no amount of sleep could help.” This was paired with both night sweats where she would wake up covered in sweat and

fevers that the doctors also commented on once they were running tests.

Seren also experienced bizarre itchy skin which she says happens “particularly on the lower half of your body, but some people say that they get full body itches.”

She also mentioned she had a high heart rate as one of her symptoms, saying: “I could feel my heart working really hard, even if I was just sitting down.”

Seren described another of her symptoms as unexplainable weight loss.

“A couple of months after I noticed the lumps I noticed my trousers weren’t fitting me properly,” she said, “and I thought that was really weird, because I hadn’t been eating differently. I hadn’t been doing more exercise.”

Weight loss is importnat to look out for as a symptom for any sort of cancer, not just Hodgkin Lymphoma.

The usual course of treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma is chemotherapy, which is how Seren’s cancer will be tackled.

Unfortunately, the reason for Hodgkin Lymphoma developing in the body is still unknown. “They know how it happens, but they don’t know why it happens,” Seren said.

Her consultant told her there are two peaks around the ages of 18-23, and between 45 to 55, when you are more likely to get it.

“I don’t want anyone to think if they have those symptoms to panic,” said Seren. “I’ve been told it’ll take months, but it’s not one of those things where they’re going to say to you, ‘I’m really sorry there’s nothing we can do for you’. It may be tough, it may take months, but you’ll be fine.”

“

Seren would also like to reassure anybody who may be experiencing the symptoms outlined not to panic, as this type of cancer is treatable and curable

“So

Seren Ashburner, an English Literature student, who was recently diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Seren’s neck in December, before her chemo started and began shrinking the tumours

The longest period of industrial action in their professions history: deconstructing the UCU’s ongoing strike action

George Devo

University teaching staff in Sheffield, and across the country, are currently engaged in the longest period of industrial action in their profession’s history, 18 days of strike action across February and March.

Fifteen years of unrest, peppered with the occasional skirmish between academics and their employers, has erupted into a full-blown civil war.

In this conflict there are two fronts, one focused on working conditions and pay, and another on pensions.

You may recognise the former. Over recent months, striking workforces nationwide have been asking for pay increases aimed at easing the consequences of inflation on the cost of living. Academia is no different.

The UCU, the union that represents academics, has demanded rises of 2% above Retail Price Index, a measure of inflation.

The offer made by University and Colleges

pay demand”. He implored UCU leaders to “provide their members with a realistic and fair assessment of what is achievable”.

The UCU is further pressing for reduction in ‘unmanageable and unsustainable’ workloads and ending the trend of workforce casualisation, pointing to the practice of universities hiring academics on ‘insecure’ and ‘demoralising’ zero-hours or temporary contracts. A UCU statement labelled them “bad for staff, and bad for education”.

The employer’s theory

to do, and people are just absolutely burnt out.”

The tensions may be higher still in the pensions dispute.

The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is the largest private pension fund in the United Kingdom, worth over £80 billion and investing in everything from wind farms to crematoria. It has been in a state of near constant reform since 2011, with the most recent package of cost cutting measures deemed necessary by the trustee if the scheme is to pay members what they were

guarantees nothing, with employees bearing the cost of poor investments. That threshold has been lowered from £60,000 to £40,000.

The rate at which a worker’s pension grows has also reduced as a result, and protection against inflation weakened. Under the UCU’s calculations, the average lecturer has lost out on 35% of their future retirement income. The union is calling for full restoration of benefits.

The debate can be reasonably reduced to whether the USS is being too cautious with its estimates,

accused the fund of “using reckless prudence. Looking back as far as 2008, you can see that we have always massively outperformed USS predictions.”

However, the UUK argue that it is not entirely up to employers. TPR is pushing for increasingly hawkish fiscal rules, and there is little opportunity for debate when they make their position clear. It would point out that academics’ pensions are well above average compared to the rest of the private sector, where the guaranteed defined pension model is verging on extinction, due to long term trends such as people living longer and falling returns on investments.

Whilst academics may provide a public service, the yearly sum of £9,250 required by most home students for their education demonstrates they are not public sector workers. To this, Dr Malek’s rebuttal is simple: “Give me a private sector salary and pay increases, then I’m ok with a private sector pension.” If this is a civil war, where do students sit? Simply put, they are collateral damage. 18 days of strikes across February and March. A month’s worth of lost teaching time. Over £1,000 of tuition fees wasted.

Employers Association (UCEA), the representative body for 172 institutions across the UK, fell “well short” according to the University and College Union (UCU). The UCEA’s latest proposal was a 5% minimum pay increase (8% for the lowest paid staff), and was rejected by the UCU.

However, Raj Jethwa, the UCEA’s Chief-Executive, argued that it is “misleading to their members’’ for the UCU to “ask them to lose 18 days of pay in pursuit of an unrealistic 13.6% (RPI + 2%)

runs that these contracts are a useful recruitment tool for short-term research projects.

Dr Sam Marsh, senior vice-president of Sheffield UCU branch and teacher in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, said that this is all part of a larger picture, one in which pay has been falling in real terms for over a decade.

He said: “Working conditions have been plummeting. While pay’s been cut, the amount that’s been demanded from staff at universities is ridiculous.

People who are leaving aren’t being replaced, more work, new initiatives, more emails to answer, more training

promised in their pensions, over the next 30 years. This follows the most recent valuation of the USS in March 2020, which showed a £14 billion deficit.

The USS is a hybrid system. A portion of a member’s income goes into the more popular determined benefit pension scheme (the income builder), which offers a set, guaranteed pension determined by salary and service, with the employer assuming investment risk.

Any income above a threshold is put into a less stable defined contribution scheme (the investment builder), which allows the employee more control over their retirement savings but

and needlessly harming academics.

UCU’s Sheffield branch pensions officer, Dr Matthew Malek, said that the deficit shown in the valuation “is not real”, and that the USS has chosen to base reforms on a particularly bleak fiscal snapshot from March 2020, the beginning of the first pandemic-related lockdown. A more recent, smaller USS monitoring report from June 2022 showed a £1.8 billion surplus - a £15.8 billion increase on the previous estimate.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR, a government body) requires the USS to use ‘prudent assumptions’ in their sums, but Dr Malek

For a non-striking lecturer, who wished to remain anonymous: “I just could not strike and further blight the most blighted degree cohort of students I have ever seen”.

They used last year’s third year students as an example to explain their rationale: “Last year they were finishing their degree. More than any other group I have seen in my career, this one has suffered tremendously. Each of their three years were scarred by strikes or by covid, and for two of their three years, both.”

Student experience is under heavy bombardment. Whatever merits the combatant’s arguments may have, it doesn’t mean the shrapnel doesn’t leave scars.

Fifteen years of unrest has erupted into a full-blown civil war

Stop Saying Nihao to Me

Saying Nihao to Asians is the first indication of racial microaggression if you assume all Asians are Chinese. Donggil Kim and Gana Ming discuss how it could be the catalyst of radical racism.

I came to study in the UK in 2019 in Brighton. Back then, it was rare to see others saying Nihao to me, though when they did, it was mostly because they wanted to be friendly. I usually explained to them patiently about my nationality.

However, Covid came in 2020 and so did all the discrimination and insults.

People started saying Nihao more, and it usually came with an up and down stare as if we were spreading disease.

It was June, during the first lockdown in 2020. I was walking home with four other Korean friends and there was a lady walking towards us, I could just tell the look from her, it wasn’t friendly.

“Nihao!” she said in a provoking tone.

Before, I may have just ignored her and walked away, but the harassment was so frequent that it was becoming unbearable. I wondered why people kept saying Nihao to me, why they kept assuming I am Chinese.

I stared back at her angrily for a few seconds and walked away. She was swearing behind me with nasty racist language.

I could have explained that I am not Chinese, but I didn’t want to make that distinction. It is not just an issue about being Chinese or Korean, it is towards all Asians; it is racism.

Later I realised that explaining or arguing back is never enough to fight racism and so, the next time I experienced it, I called the police.

This summer I was walking on the street with two other Asian friends when a car drove past and shouted at us out of nowhere. We were

terrified, but before we even realised what happened, they drove away. A few minutes later, they came back and shouted at us again. They seemed to be really amused by our frightened reaction. I saw them laughing really loud and the girl in the backseat started filming us on her phone.

I was so pissed off that I tried to chase them, but they just drove away. I thought they were gone for good this time.

Not long after, they came back again.

This time, it wasn’t not shouting or filming, but accelerating their car towards me.

In that moment I wasn’t scared, I was furious. What have we done to deserve to be treated this way?

It was only when the car was an inch away from hitting me that he changed direction.

I shouted at them and kicked their car door to try to get them to stop, but they ran away like rats.

I am glad that my friend filmed the whole thing and the car’s registration was clear on the video. A friend, who studies law, suggested that I report it to the police. I believe ignoring is never a solution to anything, at least not racism, so I did, although this did not result in a criminal case.

of respondents with East Asian or South East Asian backgrounds have experienced racism.

I had a part time job in KFC this summer. I was the cashier so I dealt with customers and delivery drivers mostly. It wasn’t a great experience overall.

One day, a delivery driver came in and said Nihao to me. I felt humiliated but I believed he didn’t do that intentionally, maybe it was merely because of his ignorance.

“Hi! How are you? I just want to say it is quite inappropriate to directly talk to an Asian in Chinese,” I said.

“Not everyone speaks Mandarin and not every Asian is Chinese.”

In my case, I understand Mandarin but my ethnicity and mother tongue is Mongolian.

When I passed him the package later, he said thank you, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t look back.

“I said thank you, you should say something back,” he said. I told him I would not speak to him, because he was being racist. He replied, “I am not racist, what do you mean? You are a really rude staff member, call your manager!”

I tried to explain everything again but I stopped after realising all of this was meaningless to him. How could he just assume I was Chinese without asking? He said he would come back and talk to my manager, but he didn’t. He ran away because he knew his racism was not right. I can’t say I felt good after this incident, nobody likes a fight.

What is a microaggression?

There are three types of microaggression: microinsult; microassault; and microinvalidation. “Saying Nihao to Asians could be either one depending on its context,” said Dr Bina Ogbebor, a researcher and the lead tutor for the Media, Race and Racism module at the University of Sheffield. “If it happens to you, it is acceptable to say something, but how you let them know matters. Besides individual efforts, another way is using different platforms, such as media, journalism, drama or play. “In Critical Race Theory, it says that teaching people will help people change. Racism is a social construct, that’s why it is important to teach people through diverse forms.

“Even though you may not encounter that situation personally, people can still choose to become an ally to help and speak up for them.” Some of the most common racial microaggressions include comments such as asking where someone is from, saying “you speak such good English”, or actions such as avoiding being in close proximity with someone of a different ethnicity.

I encourage Asians to speak up for themselves, no matter if it is racism or microaggressions, or even when strangers say Nihao to you. Although you may be a Mandarin speaker or Chinese, do not just assume people saying Nihao are all from good intentions.

A study by Ayumi Nonomiya, a student at the University of Sheffield, found that two thirds

I remember he took it really well, and that he was asking me how to say hello in Mongolian to try to show his friendliness. I had a huge sense of achievement, I believed that what I did was not in vain.

But, about a month later, the same delivery driver came in again during my shift. When I was just about to greet him, he said “WaiMai, XieXie,” which means “delivery, thank you” in Mandarin.

At that point, I wasn’t bothered to explain it again or even talk to him, it seemed completely pointless.

Microaggressions might seem much smaller than some of the racism you see on the news, but it’s still damaging. It happens on a daily basis and the public chooses to ignore most of it. What we can do is stand up and hold our ground.

As an Asian female and an international student, racism often comes with sexism and xenophobia. Besides Nihao, I have had people calling me “Chinese with small eyes” and “bitch” multiple times from random strangers, no matter day or night, all within a year since I came to the UK. I have never experienced this before in my life.

Funnily enough, when I

respond with anger, people always tell me I am being aggressive. But if I don’t speak out, who will? There might be better ways of handling this but I know silence is never a solution to racism.

Anyone who experiences any of the issues mentioned above should go to ‘Report and Support’ on the University of Sheffield website to get the the relevant information and assistance.

Gana (Myangna) Ming (she/ her)

They accelerated the car and drove towards me

“

Webb Telescope uncovers new insights on early universe star formation

Exciting news from the world of astronomy came from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in early January, with new data revealing fresh insights into the processes of early star formation.

The James Webb Space Telescope, also known as Webb, is a large infrared telescope serving thousands of astronomers across the world. It was launched on December 25th 2021, aiming to study all phases of the universe including the formation of stars and solar systems.

One of Webb’s main functions is to help us learn more about star and planet formation. Scientists hope it will enable us to answer questions about how clouds of gas and dust collapse to form stars, and how stars evolve and release the heavy elements into space to be recycled into new stars and planets.

To answer these questions, we need to be able to see into the hearts of the dense, dusty cloud cores where star formation begins. Any telescope powerful enough to see into these cores must be infrared because the dust at the heart absorbs visible light, whereas the infrared light emitted from the core can pierce through the dust to reveal what’s within.

Webb is made up of four main instruments, one of which is the Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec).

The NIRSpec is designed to observe over 100 objects simultaneously as Webb’s mirror must observe galaxies for hundreds of hours in order to collect enough light to form a spectrum. It is the first spectrograph in space with this multi-object capability.

As the NIRSpec will be observing objects that are far away, it needs to be able to block light from closer objects, just as we often squint to focus on an object when at a distance.

To do so, the NIRSpec has a microshutter array –microshutter cells, each as wide as a human hair, can be individually opened and closed to view or block a specific section of the sky.

The main instrument used in this recent discovery is the Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam); Webb’s main imager which lets astronomers photograph very faint objects around a central bright object. Scientists have used the NIRCam to study NGC 346, which is one of the most dynamic star-forming regions in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), over 200,000 light years from Earth.

So, why are astronomers so interested in the SMC?

It is particularly important as it closely resembles the conditions of our early universe, approximately two or three billion years after the Big Bang. This period is known as a ‘cosmic noon’, where star formation was at its highest. NGC 346 has

been studied before, but Webb allows astronomers to study lighter-weighted protostars than they have ever before, giving new information on the effects of the birth of stars and the star formation process itself.

When stars form, they gather gas and dust from the surrounding molecular cloud which then collects into a disk to feed the protostar. Previously, gas has been detected surrounding protostars in NGC 246, but Webb’s near-infrared observations have allowed astronomers to detect dust inside them, for the first time ever.

Why is this information so exciting? Guido De Marchi

of the European Space Agency, a co-investigator on the research team, explains, says: “We’re seeing the building blocks, not only of stars, but also potentially of planets. And since the Small Magellanic Cloud has a similar environment to galaxies during cosmic noon, it’s possible that rocky planets could have formed earlier in the universe than we might have thought.”

Given what we’ve seen so far from Webb, many cannot wait to see what else it’ll reveal about our universe – perhaps more about the early universe, galaxy and star formations, or even life on other planets.

Rising temperatures leave bees gasping for air

Catherine Fewster

It’s no secret that climate change is wreaking havoc on our natural ecosystems. Increased air temperatures coupled with more frequent and more extreme weather events are driving species to extinction.

As if this isn’t enough, pollinators are further burdened by reductions in habitat and food diversity, invasive species, and the widespread use of toxic pesticides. New research, led by Eric Riddell, even suggests climate change can directly alter the physiology of certain bumblebee species.

Bumblebees subjected to high temperatures in the study took quicker, shallower breaths than those at ambient temperatures. This hyperventilation-like

behaviour rapidly drains bumblebees’ of their valuable energy reserves, lowering their chances of survival

Riddell and colleagues placed queens, of two different bumblebee species, in separate glass tubes before exposing them to temperatures of either 18 or 30 degrees celcius. At 18 degrees, both species breathed once an hour, on average. When the temperature increased, however, the black and gold bumblebees took one breath per minute. A rate ten times faster than that of the other species studied, the common European bumblebee.

Specialist pollinators partner with only one or two plant species, and have

evolved adaptations that allow them exclusive access to their partner plant’s nectar. Generalists, on the

Although they provide a crucial ecosystem service, generalists can easily be replaced by other species in the area. The structural barriers of specialist plants, however, means that without their welladapted worker bee, pollination and reproduction can no longer occur. This disrupts food webs and endangers all species connected by them.

to the generalist common European bumblebee. Although this initial study focuses on only two bumblebee species, Riddell’s current work is investigating whether more bumblebee species show this altered behaviour.

other hand, visit numerous different plant species, overlapping with the work of other pollinating species.

This makes Riddell’s findings particularly worrying. The black and gold bumblebees, which hyperventilate with increasing temperatures, are specialists. Moreover, they were twice as likely to die within three days of being exposed to the higher temperatures, compared

With expected rises in air temperatures, specialist pollinating insects are increasingly susceptible to extinction. Approximately 75% of the crops we depend upon are pollinated by animals. Declining bee populations, therefore, not only threaten crop yields but also global food security. With climate change continuing to impact our lives, we must act now if we are to protect these pollinators and the services they provide.

Image credits: Richard Bartz on Wikimedia Commons

Image credit: NASA and the Space Telescope Institute

Charlotte Clowes

Reversing ageing in mice: what does this mean for us?

For millennia humans have searched for ways to delay ageing, from the ancient Greeks using honey and yogurt as skincare to today’s elaborate cosmetic procedures. But what if there was a way to truly reverse ageing at a cellular level? Two research teams have successfully reversed signs of ageing in mice –the question remains if this could be replicated in humans.

In 2012, Kyoto University biologist Shinya Yamanaka won a share of a Nobel Prize for discovering how mature cells in mice could be reprogrammed to become immature stem cells. He found that by introducing a few genes, so-called ‘Yamanaka factors’, he could reprogram mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells: immature cells which are able to develop into all types of body cells. A decade on, two teams argue that these genes could turn back the clock for entire organisms.

To explore Yamanaka factors as a therapy that might one day lead to practical treatment for humans, San Diegobased biotech company Rejuvenate Bio injected elderly (124-week-old) mice with adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) carrying genes for three Yamanaka factors (collectively known as OSK). The company reported that the treated mice lived another 18 weeks on average: double the 9 weeks of the control group, and 7% longer overall. The treatment also reportedly resulted in partial recovery of DNA methylation patterns. This result may suggest that one day older people could turn back their biological clocks with an injection – literally becoming younger.

This reprogramming technique, which

involves resetting cells to a ‘younger’ state, has sparked major interest among investors and the scientific community alike – with hundreds of millions being invested into this potential elixir of youth.

The paper by Rejuvenate Bio could represent widely anticipated proof that this method could indeed extend animal lives, but it remains to be seen if this is a viable treatment for humans. Although some studies have suggested Yamanaka factors could increase the chances of developing cancer, Noah Davidsohn, Rejuvenate’s chief scientific officer and co-founder, says they have seen no obvious negative effects to date.

A second study demonstrates for the first time that a breakdown in the way DNA is organised and regulated can drive ageing in an organism, independent of changes to the genetic code itself. This ageing happens as a result of epigenetic

changes, which means rather than the genetic code itself being changed, the expression of that code is changed. The study was released by a team led by David Sinclair, a Harvard Medical School professor of genetics known for having previously backed several ‘anti-ageing’ interventions, such as the use of resveratrol, causing controversy in the scientific community.

Sinclair aimed to demonstrate that loss of epigenetic information can drive ageing, and that its restoration can reverse it. This would prove his ‘information theory of ageing’, which proposes that imperfections in cells’ DNA-repairing mechanisms can lead to degradation over time. This cumulative loss of epigenetic markers leads to our bodies getting old.

To test his theory, the team genetically engineered mice to introduce breaks in their DNA at 20 sites in the

genome. The animal’s cells repaired the damage, but widespread changes in DNA methylation patterns and gene expression followed, consistent with Sinclair’s theory. This resulted in the mice having epigenetic signatures similar to those of much older animals, and within weeks they showed signs of frailty and tissue ageing, including hair and pigment loss in addition to health deterioration.

To see whether this epigenetic degradation was reversible, the Harvard group, similarly to Rejuvenate, injected the ‘aged’ mice with adeno-associated viruses carrying OSK Yamanaka factors. Analyses of the mice’s kidneys, retinas and muscles demonstrated that this did indeed reverse some of the epigenetic changes induced by the DNA breaks.

Peers within the scientific community have both praised and critiqued the findings of the two groups, with

molecular biologists warning that the Harvard team’s indirect process of inducing epigenetic changes using dramatic DNA breaks makes it hard to prove which changes are causing ageing, positing that the DNA breaks could be impacting ageing through a different route. Jan Vijg, a geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, highlights that it is unclear how well mice with induced DNA breaks mimic naturally aged animals. He stresses that ageing is a complex process with a wide range of contributing factors. Vijg emphasises that in both these studies, the effect of treatment with OSK factors was moderate at best: a minor extension of lifespan in one and a partial reversal of artificially induced ageing symptoms in the other. The idea that ageing can now be wound backwards is not yet justified by research, Vijg cautions.

Despite criticism, both groups are looking to move their work toward the clinic, with Rejuvenate examining the mechanisms underlying its treatment’s action and tweaking it’s delivery. Sinclair says his team is already testing AAV-delivered OSK in the eyes of monkeys: “If those studies in monkeys go well and everything looks safe enough for humans, the plan is to immediately apply to the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] to do a study in one or more [age-related] diseases of blindness,” he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

We have already seen gene and cell therapy move from the realm of science fiction to medical reality. We still have a long way to go, but these studies could be laying the foundations for yet another revolution in the rapidly developing field of genetic medicine.

Rebecca Dawes

Both rodents pictured are about 16 months old, middle-aged for the species, but the right one had its DNA broken at 5 months old. Image credit: David Sinclair at Harvard Medical School.

Lifestyle

Where are the necklaces?

Lois Daniels (she/her)

As celebrities walked onto the red carpet at the Golden Globes earlier this month, TikTok couldn’t help but notice the bare necks of their favourite stars.

Daisy Edgar-Jones and Selena Gomez are just two among the countless attendees that flaunted their bare décolletage. This was then followed by Margot Robbie’s appearance at the Sydney premiere of Babylon, wearing a 90s-inspired baby blue Versace dress – but no necklace.

The verdict? Necklaces are out of fashion for 2023. Countless users flocked to social media sites to speculate this phenomenon. Within days, the ‘no necklace’ mystery was

trending. One theory is that the absence of the necklace points towards what Tiktok has dubbed as ‘recession core’. Some believe that the bare décolletage is an active effort to steer celebrities away from ostentatious gestures in a time of economic struggle. Who wants to see the upper echelons of society flaunting extortionately priced fashion trends in the midst of an economic crisis?

Others have gone on to speculate that the lack of jewellery is attempt to flaunt the collarbone. One Tiktok user went as far to say that “collarbones are an accessory again”, calling back to the 1990s/early 2000s ‘cocaine skinny’, or ‘heroin chic’, era.

Popularized by slender

supermodels, notably Kate Moss, ‘heroin chic’ is characterized by pale skin, dark under-eyes, and an emaciated body type. Some anticipate that this movement towards bare necks is an exhibit of skin and bones, and proof that the slim female body is becoming a fashion trend yet again. Fearing the effect ‘heroin chic’ may have on eating habits, Jameela Jamil spoke on Instagram, stating, “our bodies are not trends”. But within the online deep dive into the ‘no necklace’ mystery, there have been some simpler solutions. Some defend the stylists’ choice by saying that statement earrings are more trendy, or that the necklaces often distract us from the look itself. Others think that a necklace is aging, and the

lack of the piece gives a more youthful appearance.

In a time of rapid spreading news, and constantly changing trends, social media platforms like Tiktok are an unstoppable force.

What is ‘trending’ today may be forgotten soon. And though the absence of the necklace may be pestering users now, the bedazzled pendant may be the talk of tomorrow.

Why is it so important to find your own style?

Anya Goulthorpe (she/her)

Ever since the rise of TikTok in 2019, people have been more connected to fashion trends than ever before. We see what models and influencers wear without even searching for it, causing an increase in selfconsciousness as to what we

wear in comparison. This is why its so important to like what we wear - it gives us the confidence to leave the house not only looking good, but feeling amazing too. I know that, for me, what I wear is fundamental to my personality. I wear what suits my body shape and makes me feel good, even if it may not be 100% in trend

at the time. So, as we start our journey into 2023, its important to take the time to find our own personal style. Here are some tips on how to find your style this year, with what looks will really make you feel fabulous without making you feel isolated from your FYP.

Low Rise Waists

A signature of the 90s, the lower-slung waisted bottoms are back in fashion. From jeans to evening skirts, everything is getting the low-rise treatment. It seems that the high-rise signature of previous years may be taking an extended sabbatical for summer 2023. Low rise exposes the midriff for impact, but this may not make everyone feel comfortable. Adjustable parachute pants are a nice middle ground: you can wear them low, medium, or high, depending on how tight you fasten the toggles. This means if you don’t feel like exposing your stomach you can wear them slightly higher, but if you want to go for it one day, you still have the option. I love to style a low rise waist with

either a crop top, or a full length t-shirt with my stomach showing below the bellybutton.

Platform Trainers

Again reminiscent of the 90s, especially with the Spice Girls, the platform shoe is seeing a revival in 2023. Platform sneakers, such as Buffalos, are so chunky they’re almost comical, yet are synonymous with the anti-establishment and anti-fashion movement that we’re seeing a resurgence of today. Worn by stars such as Gigi Hadid and Billie Eilish, they represent the nonconformist ideology. The platform trainer seems to add a tad more excitement to an outfit, especially with a statement pair of trousers. What could be an even bigger trend in 2023 is splicing the platform trainer with ‘dad core’ shoes, like New Balance. Introduced in December 2022 by Hedi Slimane, this new bold silhouette is timeless and versatile. I recommend buying in an outfitconforming colour like black or white, firstly because they go with everything,

and secondly because this saves you buying more than one pair of the slightly pricy shoe.

Abundance of Piercings

Gone are the days of a simple stud. In 2023, more is more. It's all about a multitude of piercings in all different shapes and sizes, with multiple ear and nose piercings coming into fashion, and stacking together earrings and nose rings to create a cohesive look. The double nostril piercing made its appearance in 2022, and people are now adding to this with an extra septum down the middle. Belly button piercings are also back as an extra accessory to a crop top and low rise jeans. This is an exciting time for body jewellery, as now it seems that anything goes. Workplaces are becoming more accepting of the uprising in self-expression, so what's stopping you from going out there and getting another piercing? It’s a small period of slight pain in exchange for a permanent accessory that always looks trendy.

Image credit: Unsplash

The early 00's origins of the low-rise waist... Britney Spears in 2003. Image credit: Unsplash

Self-education for LGBT History Month

February is both a time for vibrant celebration of the LGBT community, and for education about past and ongoing struggles and successes. Here is a selection of the best shows, podcasts, and books for those looking to start learning about LGBT history.

Anya Goulthorpe (she/her)

Novels

Although this book is fictitious, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid explores bisexuality, lesbianism, and gay lifestyles from 1930 to the present day. It is an interesting insight into how the LGBTQ+ community came together in a time when it was not accepted in mainstream society. The life of the main character, Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo, is described in great detail, exploring her loves and losses with an extremely saddening plotline. The book is set to have its film adaptation come to Netflix, with many hoping for actress Ana De Armas to play the lead. Jenkins’ book is unique as it features queer people of colour, a demographic often overlooked especially when talking about queer history in the 20th century. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is available to buy on Amazon and in Waterstones. Another historical book which is based on a true story is The Price of Salt by queer author, Patricia Highsmith, initially released in 1952 under the pseudonym 'Claire Morgan'. It is a stroy of forbidden love between two women in 1950s New York. Some people may know this book better by its film adaptation Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. The film was nominated for six Oscars in 2016, but the book adds perspective through the eyes of protagonist, Therese, which in my opinion could not quite translate to the big screen. The book is an emotional and intense example of lesbian romance at a time when it was illegal. The Price of Salt is available to buy on Amazon, and Carol is free to stream with Amazon Prime.

TV Shows

In terms of series, there are a plethora available across multiple streaming platforms. Perhaps one lesser known is The L Word, consisting of six seasons filmed from 2004-2009. Following the lives of lesbian and bisexual women in Los Angeles, whilst also tackling issues of transphobia and biphobia within the LGBTQ+ community, the show takes a fairly colloquial stance. The characters are so endearing and relatable for queer women, and it is available to stream free of charge on both FreeVee and Amazon Prime.

Another informative show set in 1980s London is It’s A Sin, which surrounds the lives of three gay men during the AIDs epidemic. Made up of stellar acting from Years and Years lead, Olly Alexander, the series tackles serious issues of HIV and AIDs epidemic in the 80s, which took hundreds of thousands of innocent lives whilst being ignored by governments worldwide. From 1981 to 1990, 100,000 people were lost to HIV/AIDs in the US alone. Viewers get an education on the fight to understand HIV from a range of views, acknowledging the stigmas even within the community. The NTA award winning show is currently free to stream on the Channel 4 app.

Podcasts

Moving onto podcasts, the one-year-old show, Exactly, by queer author Florence Given is available on all streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music. It is a bubble-busting guide to modern-day feminism and explores topics surrounding queer sex, history, and body image in a way that makes listeners feel empowered whilst also being educated. She interviews a range of insightful people including Jameela Jamil, Instagram activist Matt Bernstein, Oprah’s Life Coach Martha Beck, trans activist Shon Faye, and many more. Episodes can be listened to in any order and each episode focuses on a specific topic, meaning those wanting to learn more about the community can handpick topics that interest them. Another very informative podcast available across all streaming platforms is Homo Sapiens. It is hosted by Alan Cumming and Chris Sweeney, two gay men who interview a sparkling line-up of LGBTQ+ icons. They also tackle contemporary issues like the World Cup in Qatar and coming out in football. Specials, like episodes on Trans Awareness Week, also delve into the history of transgender culture with licensed specialists appearing as guest stars to inform listeners.

The L Word, via The Movie DB

It's a Sin, via The Movie DB

Carol, via The Movie DB

Preview: Midland Players present Crookback by Christopher M. Walker

Crookback, is a radical reimagining of Shakespeare’s Richard III, set to be performed by Sheffield theatre group Midland Players later this month.

Following in the footsteps of such a well-loved playwright is sure to make this production one of the most intriguing in the Sheffield Theatres calendar this year.

Taking on one of Shakespeare’s plays is quite a feat. Why Richard III? What sparked your interest to take on this reimagining?

With its explicit ableism, equating physical disability with a monstrously twisted soul, I doubt the play is particularly enjoyed by anyone born with a physical disability. It is certainly not loved by those who have done enough historical research to recognise that Richard had the makings of a good king, and see an injustice in the defamatory depiction of him which was crafted to stay in favour with the Tudor regime. Even those with no axe to grind, might find it difficult to love an incredibly long-winded so-called ‘tragedy’ in which the central character is so irredeemably evil that he gloats over the details of how his nephews were murdered on his instructions.

When Richard III’s remains, with a spine twisted by scoliosis, were found in 2012, I was inspired to read and watch everything I could in order to learn about the real historical figure. Returning to Shakespeare’s play, my sense of injustice was provoked by such a historically distorted portrayal, but I could still appreciate aspects of the play which audiences enjoyed, and understood the pressures on the writer to portray the deposed king as a tyrant who had to be removed.

It left me wondering how different this play might

have been if Shakespeare had felt safe enough to craft a more complex and nuanced protagonist, with virtues as well as flaws, so that his demise would indeed meet the classical definition of tragedy. In a moment of madness, I decided to imagine myself as Shakespeare, a little embarrassed by this early work; like any great artist, now seeking to improve upon it!

How is this production bringing something new to this story?

This is not simply another performance of Shakespeare’s play with the same lines but tweaks in how characters are acted and costumed. It is a full ‘root and branch’ rewriting; a substantial part of the original has been removed, new lines and passages added, and the remaining lines revised to be consistent with fresh interpretations of all the characters.

This Richard, like the real one, has no obvious physical deformity, the sideways curve to his spine being easily hidden when clothed, but it is something of which he is conscious, and acutely aware that others know of. He is a man who overcame this to earn respect on the battlefield, but now in a time of peace struggles to fit in, and knows that he is looked down upon by the social climbing family of his brother’s wife.

There is also a difference in the use of contemporary language in this play. This decision was made to encourage everyone to enjoy the story and not feel as if they are having to translate from a foreign language. It remains in iambic pentameter, however, so that lovers of Shakespeare will still feel they are watching Shakespearean drama.

Notably, ‘Loyalty Binds Me’ was the Duke of Gloucester’s personal motto, and this production emphasises the importance of loyalty and the difficulty in trying to figure out who is loyal and who may be a traitor.

In this production, it is made clear that there are multiple individuals with their eyes on the throne, not just Richard. The ‘Wars of the Roses’ which this story is the conclusion to were, after all, the historical inspiration for Game of Thrones. The Richard of Crookback is still something of a rogue, but he is a more sympathetic protagonist, whose resentments are manipulated. He is no killer of children, and he is not running away from battle looking for a horse! What is the atmosphere in the run up to the show? What can the audience expect from these performances?

With a cast of 22 on stage, including two children, there is excitement about presenting something new to an audience to see how it is received, and a little nervousness from our lead actor, Matt Da Gama, about how those in attendance from the Richard III Society will react to his performance. Despite all the revisions, the play does still present their hero as taking a crown that was expected to go to his brother’s son, so Matt hopes he can get out of the theatre in one piece!

I think the play is a real audience-pleaser which has something of everythingpassionate romance, tension you can cut with a knife, dark comedy, and even an exciting action scene. A key part of the story is the mysterious disappearance of ‘The Princes in the Tower’, and there are a few breadcrumbs strewn for detectives in the audience to work out what the author feels happened to them. Best of all, the play has a wonderful mix of distinct characters, each of them complicated flawed human beings who feel justified in their actions. I hope the audience will care enough about one or more of these characters that we might even jerk a tear or two. Tell us about behind the scenes? How have you used production techniques to enhance the performance?

In a play with 23 scenes set in 20 locations, the only option for set is the absolute minimum needed, in order to keep the play moving otherwise about 20 minutes of an audience’s time would be spent waiting for scene-changes. When you perform with almost no set, and have 22 actors playing 53 characters, this makes costume vitally important, not only to add visual interest but also to make a clear statement about each new role the actor takes on. This is of course exactly how Shakespeare’s plays were performed in his own time, and some of our contemporary costuming choices should surprise and amuse an audience

What impression would you like to leave on the audience? Is there anything you would like audience members to remember/take away from the show?

Richard III was responsible for our country’s system of bail, which prevents a person being held indefinitely without trial, their guilt unproven. It’s ironic, therefore, that this same person is judged guilty of a host of crimes as a result of Tudor propaganda and Shakespeare’s play - history is indeed written by the victors and their supporters. I hope our audience will recognise that he lived through our country’s real Game of Thrones, a time when multiple individuals sought power, and it was hard to know who could be trusted and who was going to be the death of you. In this atmosphere of paranoia, choices which might now seem morally questionable might be made in order to

survive, and even for the good of the country. The audience should feel some goose bumps at the very end of the play when Henry Tudor assumes power, because it is a salutary lesson: be careful what you wish for.

Furthermore, the Yorkshire branch of the Richard III Society will have representatives at a stand in the foyer on each night of performance, and be happy to chat with anyone curious to learn more about the last king of England to die in battle.

Lastly, tell us a little about Midland Players. How would you encourage others to join?

Midland Players, based in Sheffield, is a really inclusive group which is always pleased to welcome new members, regardless of experience. Matt Da Gama joined us in the summer to operate lighting, and the first time he auditioned he found himself cast as ‘Richard III’! Anyone with a love for theatre and a desire to be involved in any way at all need only get in touch via our website or Facebook page.

Crookback - Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’ Rebooted’, by Christopher M Walker will be performed over four nights, at the Sheffield University Drama Studio from Weds. 15th through to Sat. 18th Feb. at 7.30 pm.

Tickets are available online from the Midlands Players website,

The script is available to purchase from any high street bookseller, or online outlets.

Photo Credits: Joe Otten & Chris Walker

Faith Suronku-Lindsay (she/her)

LGBTQ+ Reading Group

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong

When? Tuesday 28th February at 7pm Where? Digital Commons in the IC This session is part of the Book Society and the University Library’s Reading For Diversity programme. Register here: www.tinyurl.com/lgbtreading

LGBTQ+ history month: Spotlight on Keith Haring

Sharing his immortal language of love

From his radiant baby to his famous dog, Keith Haring’s iconography can be seen in every corner of the globe, stamped on any piece of merchandise big enough to fit it. His artwork is unavoidable in this commodified world, yet the origins of his prints have been dusted away under the commotion of his commercial success. His persistent and direct promotion of authenticity and self-assurance led him to create and leave behind a legacy of inclusion, hope and acceptance within the LGBTQ+ community, whilst also pushing for political change around the globe through murals and exhibitions.

Keith Haring, born in 1958 in a sleepy town in Pennsylvania, craved for a community to be a part of, and his isolation from his peers led him to spend most of his time drawing. It was only after being hired in an arts and crafts centre in Pittsburgh and seeing the Pierre Alechinsky exhibition in the Carnegie Museum of Art did his passion evolve into a desire. He continued to hone his work and in 1978, at just 20 years old, he held

his first show. On his journey there he saw a piece of paper on the ground. On one side it read ‘God is a Dog’ and on the other ‘Jesus is a Monkey.’ For some reason, this triggered a sort of punk attitude in Haring and, in collaboration with his initial success in Pittsburgh, he decided to move to New York City in the same year, ‘for the intensity.’

Haring believed that the public had a right to art. During his time in the then-labelled ‘fear city’ of post-Stonewall New York, he cemented a passion to share his messages with a world that had been shunned from the esoteric, elitist gallery system of modern art. Nurturing his talent with like-minded friends in Club 57 and similar queer communities of NYC, he explored his newfound liberty with regard to both his sexuality and creativity. In 1980 he broke onto the streets after being entranced with the fast paced, fluid nature of the surrounding graffiti scene. Having noticed the black panels covering old advertisements on the wall of the subway, he chalked his first drawing out on these. Soon Haring’s simple and eye-catching works appeared all around the city. In choosing to place his art

where New Yorkers could experience it every day, he opened up a direct channel of communication with the public, effectively a hotline to share his messages to groups of people who were otherwise disconnected with the modern art world. This dialogue enabled by Haring provided the platform for a wave of progressive, radical, and taboo-challenging motifs to enter the collective public consciousness. Cementing his style of flowing and colourful, yet also simple, illustrations, Haring created a vocabulary understood by everyone. Through his deliberate inclusivity towards accessing his art, he ensured his art was always made in the name of activism. Just as Haring’s art was explicit, so did some consider his messages to be. Unlike previous openly gay artists, in this era of liberation Haring didn’t need to hide his queer celebration. There was no requirement of a ‘double vision’ to recognise gay iconography. His images clearly featured penises, condoms, people having sex, animals having sex, and in big bold letters: ‘safe sex.’ Haring didn’t view sex as a shameful action, and this opened up a conversation. Although his explicit imagery was met with backlash which labelled it as pornography, it remains clear that his intent was far from this.

After painting walls around the globe and holding exhibitions in very popular

galleries, Haring was at his peak in both his career and fame. At the same time, the HIV/AIDS crisis was also peaking. Labelled the ‘gay cancer’ or ‘gay plague’ despite affecting people of all sexualities, it tragically led to the deaths of hundreds of people, some of them Haring’s friends. The disease was deeply stigmatised. Shame and disgust followed anyone with a positive diagnosis. In 1987, as a part of his endless striving for social transparency, Haring became one of the first men of such celebrity status to publicly declare that he had been diagnosed with AIDS. Mirroring his art, Haring treated the crisis with no shame or implicitness. He had AIDS and he wasn’t going to hide it. Haring’s acceptance radiated throughout the queer community, giving comfort to many who were too afraid and shunned by society to discuss the crisis.

An important line of his work, titled Silence = Death and Ignorance = Fear, shattered societal negligence on the matter. Haring reclaimed the pink triangle used in Nazi Germany to identify gay and trans people, really asserting the seriousness of the matter. A pink spotlight was cast from the shadows and, to this day, allows many people to come out and fight inequality and injustice. The way Haring broke taboos to promote widespread education

against misconceptions about the crisis was ultimately accelerated by his simple, direct and everpresent images. Many young gay men have lost out on the opportunity to learn from older members of their community due to the crisis, but Haring provides an immortal image of advocacy for discussion and education that the public needs just as much now as it did back then.

A crucial stepping stone to public awareness occurred when Haring, two years into his diagnosis, laid out his entire life story and his experience of living with AIDS in a Rolling Stone article. Fowllowing this, in 1989, he established the Keith Haring Foundation and joined the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). To this day the foundation funds LGBTQ+ projects and generates awareness through the use of Haring’s plethora of art.

Keith Haring died from AIDS-related complications on 16th February 1990, surrounded by friends and family. His legacy lives on in his immortal lexicon of symbols, always reminding us of hope, euphoria, pride and revolution.

A poet, philosopher, and activist, Keith Haring saved lives and birthed new waves of art and culture. Thursday 16th February will mark 33 years since his death, yet his unrelenting spirit lives on.

Part epistolary, part autofiction, part lyric essay, this novel follows the early life of a gay Vietnamese refugee negotiating the weight of his selfhood in a hostile environment. At its heart is a brief, tender relationship between the novel’s narrator, Little Dog, and Trevor, a teenager who seems doomed by the expectations of white American masculinity.

Amar Sangha (he/him)

Fran Fitzpatrick (she/her), Helen Dickinson (she/her), Ro Daniels (they/ them)

"Together we can stop AIDS" - Haring's mural

in Barcelona (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Our favourite albums of 2022

Alice's picks

5

mosh-pit inducing bridges created an undeniably festival-worthy album. Taking the album as an opportunity to explore more emotional lyricism, ‘Sleeping With You’ and ‘I Got You’, added an extra depth of melancholy to a classic indie rock album.

‘Are We Gonna Be Alright?’ – Fickle Friends

Fickle Friends certainly helped to beat my January blues, kicking off the year with a new collection of their euphoric indie pop sound in the form of their second album. An ‘80s infused toe-tapper of an album, laced with sparkly, electronic sounds and simple chord patterns, this album had to feature in my top five. The perfect accompaniment to any power walk or bedroom dance party.

Favourite Song?: Pretty Great 4

‘Homesick’ – Sea Girls

Having peaked at no. 3 in the UK charts, Sea Girl’s second LP Homesick is packed with teenage nostalgia, something of which – having started listening to Sea Girls when I was seventeen myself – couldn’t escape my top five. Topping their first album ‘Open Up Your Head’ was always going to be a mean feat for the four piece, but the familiar anthemic choruses and

‘Being

Funny

In A Foreign Language’ – The 1975

Favourite Song?: Again Again 3

The 1975’s fifth studio album is a refreshing reminder of the band’s jarringly glossy sound. Frontman Matty Healy stated that while he previously felt pressure to pursue an allencompassing “Magnum Opus”, Being Funny is more akin to a small-scale Polaroid in its musical and lyrical focus. The band have produced a strippeddown album that, although it goes back to the basics of the 1975 (echoes of 80’s pop-rock littered with catchy hooks and clever lyricism), also explores a new sense of maturity. My personal highlights include what is essentially the new postmodern Christmas bop ‘Wintering’ and the melodic ‘About You’, featuring a duet with the angelic vocals of Carly Holt, lead guitarist Adam Hann’s wife.

Favourite Song?: Wintering

2‘Midnights’ –Taylor Swift ‘Midnights’ is spirited pop for the small hours. Romantic and revengeful, Taylor’s tenth album glides through every emotion at that mystifying hour, from sweet dreams to night terrors in a newly subdued and nebulous pop sound. Despite the overall album creating its own stand-out sound, it can’t go without mention that some songs sound more like they belong on ‘Reputation’ than

Reputation itself does. If ‘Folklore’ is brooding on a walk through the woods, ‘Midnights’ is walking home at 3am after a night out, makeup smudged, reflecting on life. From the catchy chorus of ‘Antihero’ to the gut-wrenching bridge of ‘Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve’, the album does exactly what it says on the tin: following the calculated thoughts of an overthinker, to admiring the prettiness of the hour.

Favourite Song?: Paris

1‘five seconds flat’ – Lizzy McAlpine

My top album of 2022 is a far cry from the electronic bops of Fickle Friends or The 1975 and the revengeful

yet sugary pop of Taylor Swift, instead, being the soft sounds of 23 year old Lizzy McAlpine. A songwriter whose talent involves crafting the most gut-wrenching lyrics accompanied by simple, swelling chords, leaving any listener breathless and exhausted by such a rush of emotion and sound.

McAlpine’s duet with Ben Kessier in my personal favourite from the album ‘reckless driving’ is a perfect example of such an emotional journey the listener is taken on: the song imitating a metaphorical car crash with a perfectly abrupt end. Whilst ‘ceilings’ elegantly crafts a whole love story that – spoiler – is all inside her head. McAlpine’s narrative technique is one to be marvelled at, each song calmly telling stories from beginning to end,

Stayin' Alive - Funk Cover

Fresh tracks

laced with beautiful home audio clips and adlibs to reinforce the astounding sense of relatability of each song she creates. An album for the hopeless and the hopeless romantics, ‘five seconds flat’ is, to me, the best of 2022.

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Music

Body Better

‘Dragon New

Warm

Mountain I Believe In You’ – Big Thief

Folk-rock band

Big Thief’s fifth album is easily their best to date. Encapsulating folk, rock, country, bluegrass and even trip-hop, this 20song behemoth has no right to be as good as it is. Yet in its own prismatically rambling way, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You feels too short. Instrumentally very rich, no part on the album feels like filler. Every single second of this 1 hour 20 minute masterpiece feels deliberately placed and thought-out.

2‘Skinty Fia’ – Fontaines D.C.

the best bits of their first two albums, whilst at the same time creating something differently entirely. However, the biggest highlight of the album is lead-singer Grian Chatten’s lyrics, dealing with intense, emotional subjects whilst matching the overall atmosphere of the album.

Favourite Song?: The Couple Across The Way

is simply a masterpiece. Tender and fiery, delicate and frenzied, uplifting and devastating, Ants From Up There is a work of art. The melancholia felt throughout the album is echoed in real-life due to the departure of lead-singer and primary song-writer Isaac Wood, yet all this does is create a feeling of beautiful finiteness.

'The

Favourite Song?: reckless driving Charlie's Picks 5

Car' - Arctic Monkeys

The seventh album from Sheffield’s very own Arctic Monkeys, The Car somehow manages to be one of their best. Taking all that was good about their seminal 5th album AM, as well as their last outing Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, and improving on it all, The Car is easily the best thing the band has done since Humbug. Featuring Alex Turner’s trademark crooning, as well as some smooth, rich instrumental backing, I can’t wait to see the band in Hillsborough Park this summer.

Favourite song? : Body Paint

Favourite Song?: Simuation Swarm 3

‘ALPHA PLACE’ –Knucks

The debut album from London-based rapper Knucks, ALPHA PLACE is one of the best British rap albums in recent memory. Combining jazz, grime, and drill as well as conventional rap, ALPHA PLACE is seemingly unlike anything coming out of the UK scene. Knucks’ fantastic use of samples, as well as his lyrical realism and beautiful flow, create a new sound and style that should surely take UK rap to new heights.

Favourite Song?: Hide & Seek

Following on from their incredible debut album Dogrel, and their equallybrilliant sophomore album A Hero’s Death, Dublin-based five-piece Fontaines D.C. delivered their best album yet in Skinty Fia. Featuring a more complex and experimental sound, the band effortlessly combines

1‘Ants From Up There’ – Black Country, New Road I truly do think Ants From Up

There will go down as one of the best albums of the last ten years. It

Favourite Song?: The Place Where He Inserted The Blade

Scary Pockets ft Lizzy McAlpine

Scary Pockets' eclectic new funk cover combines Lizzy McAlpine's soothing vocals to create the perfect track for curing the new year blues.

C'est Comme Ça Paramore

According to Hayley Williams, the song is about "trying to get un-addicted to a survival narrative"

Maisie Peters

A toe tapping heartbreaker, Peters' shares her insecurities in the best way. Her most honest song yet, Body Better explores forbidden fury and vunlerbility.

Aftersun: "An absolute genius piece of filmmaking" - Review

Charlotte Wells' feature debut is one of the greatest movie achievements of 2022. It is so rare that a 90-minute film such as

this would summon such poignancy, which lingers achingly throughout the film. It doesn’t appear to be about much for the first hour, just a heart-warming story about a father (Paul Mescal) taking his pre-teen daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) to a rundown resort in Turkey during the 1990s.

With remarkable audacity Wells allows her movie to become a hauntingly deceptive short story which keeps the watcher hooked on uncertainty. The aesthetic details of a sunshine holiday show the innocence of a central relationship between father and daughter which holds incredible importance for Sophie.

Aftersun encapsulates childhood memories through the lens of Sophie’s camera, which switches between the holiday and glimpses of the present. An adult Sophie, now in a relationship with a

woman in her London flat, watches back these clips endowed with a sense of nostalgia. Yet tears begin to roll down her face, confusing viewers.

Paul Mescal has been nominated for an Oscar in his role as Calum, a young Scottish father who has more to him than meets the eye. As for Corio, she is a likeable good-natured child who acts well in conjunction with Mescal, their rapport being something to marvel at. As the two begin their holiday, there is no atmosphere of imminent transgression or emotional development. It seems normal enough, going in the pool, sunbathing, doing karaoke (although this features an admittedly awkward scene when Sophie’s dad refuses to join in). However, towards the end of the trip Calum goes off on his own and

gets drunk, overcome with sadness he cannot show his daughter, and then becomes overwhelmed with guilt as a result.

Harshly denied an Oscar nomination for best picture

What makes Aftersun the most amazing feature is the last ten minutes. Gregory Oke’s cinematography in the final scenes between the two captures the colour of memory, with bright exteriors, vivid snapshots of Mescal in an intoxicated state, weaving in and out of the film’s emotional labyrinth, and putting the audience right into the moment.

This scene juxtaposed with images of adult Sophie screaming excruciatingly is

so heart-breaking you can’t help but cry. I will not spoil exactly what happens at the end of the film, but it is the best piece of British cinema in 2022.

The ending is so ambiguous and is up to our own interpretation; there is no big declaration about Calum’s fate after the holiday. Aftersun tells you everything you need to know without explicitly stating it. It shows far more than it tells.

The film remains painfully sad in its ending but gives power to memories and to the people alive in spirit. Aftersun amplifies feelings of love, joy, and even loss, making them far more relatable than you may have thought. It is an absolute genius piece of filmmaking, that has been harshly denied an Oscar nomination for best picture.

The Menu: "Leaves you laughing one minute, and utterly traumatised the next" - Review

Directed by Succession’s Mark Mylod, The Menu is the latest instalment of the so-called ‘eat the rich’ phenomenon that is currently sweeping the media with shows like The White Lotus and films like Glass Onion.

Mylod however, takes the ‘eating’ part of that phrase much further, dipping into yet another popular genre at the moment: cooking and fine-dining, as seen in shows like The Bear and films like Boiling Point.

The Menu has all the right ingredients for a great film. It follows Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), the last minute date of obsessive foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), as they embark on an elaborate tasting menu from the twisted mind of Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes).

The evening begins

as a pretentious affair with courses such as the ‘breadless bread course’ and gradually makes its way into much more threatening territory, as Slowik reveals himself to be a controlling psychopath with a disturbing plan for the meal.

Reviews have been mixed, but nearly everyone who has seen this film is in agreement about the extraordinary performances from the entire cast.

Standout performances for me were Anya Taylor-Joy, who never fails to amaze, Ralph Fiennes, whose cold demeanour transformed a potentially one-dimensional character into a truly chilling antagonist, and Hong Chau whose vulnerable yet stoic assistant Elsa was fantastically compelling.

The tone of The Menu fluctuates constantly, eliciting laughter, disgust, audible gasps, sympathy, tension and anger to name a few. Some have criticised this but I personally found

it to be refreshing, and it was interesting to see how you could be laughing one minute and utterly traumatised the next. The complexity of the characters and the quality of acting also made it possible to simultaneously hate and pity every single one of them, from Margot and Elsa to the finance bros and even to Slowik himself. So, whilst clearly a criticism of overconsumption and people with more money than sense, Mylod is able to create a really complex story that isn’t quite as simple as ‘eat the rich’.

When I first watched The Menu, I was expecting a gory show-down and was initially disappointed when this wasn’t fulfilled. Much like Ari Aster’s Midsommar, The Menu is consistently unsettling in a very controlled way which on reflection, would actually be undercut by a bloody showdown.

That’s not to say that

the film isn’t gory or that it doesn’t have a satisfying ending, just that it is more of a psychological thriller than a straight-forward horror, which some may like and

others may not. It may not be to everyone’s tastes, but the The Menu is compelling, complex and exquisitely acted.

Eliza Wood (she/her)

Anya Goulthorpe (she/her)

LGBT History Month: A look back at Moonlight

It is not my wish when writing this piece to eschew the representation of any members of the LGBTQ+ community. Straight men often have a rather reductive view of the the struggles faced by gay men, and as a result, I thought it would be valuable to describe how one film helped challenge my perspective of homosexuality as a heterosexual male.

Moonlight shows how parental neglect, drug addiction, and identity affect Chiron (Ashton Sanders). His exploration of masculinity and sexuality, alongside these challenges, are explored in three distinct acts in the film, which are titled Little, Chiron, and Black.

Chiron’s father is absent, and his mother is a drug

addict. This leads him to Juan (Mahershala Ali), a benevolent drug dealer, who during a series of interludes spends time with Chiron that his mother does not, and teaches him things which his father did not.

This is most apparent when Chiron questions Juan and his partner Teresa (Janelle Monáe) about his sexuality, and only here does he learn

that sexuality is natural and not something acquired, or as Juan puts it to him, ‘you just know’. Juan tells Chiron there is nothing wrong with being gay, and he should stand up to anyone who mocks him.

After Juan’s death, Chiron is isolated. His mother is only present when she needs his money. He has no one to

help him combat the violence he faces at school, or to talk to about his first sexual experience which took place with his childhood friend, Kevin. Chiron's frustration with his bully Terrel, who manipulated Kevin to turn against him, leads to him attacking the bully, for which he is arrested and jailed.

Years later, Chiron has

changed. He is muscular and wears imposing accessories, such as huge gold chains. He remains celibate for nearly a decade, a fact we learn when he is reunited with his lover at the end of the film. It is only in this instance Chiron’s mask is seen to be ill-fitting. The film is incredibly moving and helps one to understand the myriad challenges a gay man could face, and thus is essential for anyone who has a reductive view of the homosexual experience.

To anyone looking to challenge their perceptions of LGBT relationships, or just looking for a night of great film, I would also recommend viewing Portrait of A Lady on Fire, which is to be shown at the Students Union on the 18th February. It was awarded the Palme d’Or and thirtieth place on Sight and Sound’s 2022 list of the greatest films of all time.

Babylon: "A frustrating experience that never manages tie together" - Review

whatever it takes to carve out a career in the pictures.

Four years after his gentle, moving biopic of Neil Armstrong, First Man, director Damien Chazelle has returned to his jazzy Whiplash and La La Land roots with a chaotic, vulgar and ultimately underwhelming 180-minute ode to the golden age of Hollywood with his new film Babylon

Across its mammoth three-hour run time, the film interweaves the lives of three characters: Nelly LaRoy (Margot Robbie), a rough around the edges Jersey girl with dreams of making it big on the silver screen, Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), Hollywood's leading man who struggles to adapt as the movies business embraces sound, and Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a Mexican immigrant determined to do

Starting in 1926 with a party scene that lasts the length of most normal movies, the film spans the roaring twenties to Hollywood's transition to talkies; we see LaRoy and Torres’ stars rise as Conrad’s begins to fade. Margot Robbie does her best to give an extra dimension to a character who from the first minute to the last seems determined to irritate everyone. Relative newcomer Diego Calva gives the best performance of the three leads but as the scenes flash by with the pace of the 20s movie-making business, he becomes less and less likeable, so any jeopardy in the final act is largely dashed away.

One of the most interesting characters is Sydney Palmer, a jazz trumpeter who goes from slumming it at Hollywood parties to being a movie star. Sydney is played brilliantly by Jovan Adepo

(Overlord, Watchmen) but sadly the film doesn't find time to give him much more than the occasional crash zoom into his trumpet bell. The film is at its best during its huge set pieces which seem to feature an impossible amount of extras, long takes and whip pans. Frequent collaborator Justin Hurwitz produces another award worthy score to keep the tempo going just as scenes seem to be losing steam. The two party scenes, involving elephants, snakes and a lot of drugs, and another extremely tense scene as the studio struggles to adapt to recording sound, prove to be the most engaging, outrageous and hilarious.

In the midst of the chaos Chazelle finds time to bake a mini horror film into Babylon, with Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man) making a brief appearance as a gangster who takes Torres on a hellish trip through LA’s dark underworld. The scene

is terrifying and brilliantly crafted, but feels too jarring and out of place. Quentin Tarantino attempted a similar scene in his own Hollywood story, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, but where Tarantino managed to make the genre-bend a gentle curve in the story, Babylon feels more like a hairpin turn, only leaving you disorientated.

The scene sums up what makes Babylon a frustrating experience: a lot of it is good, some of it is great, but Chazelle never manages

to tie it all together. Its lead characters are never endearing or engrossing enough to pull you into scenes lacking wow-factor set pieces. In his last film, Chazelle took a character study of the first man on the moon and turned it into a deeply personal and human story. Any lessons learned from that seem to have been lost. The director found more warmth on the surface of the moon than in Hollywood, despite all the glitz and glamour.

Rory Currie (he/him)

Tobias Gavelle (he/him)

The neglect the young boy experiences leaves him especially ill-equipped to deal with the challenges facing him to do with working out his identity.

Describing High on Life’s premise on paper is near impossible, but here goes…

You wake up in your room as a lazy teenager whose parents are out-of-town, with your sister barging in, snorting a line of what can only be caster sugar (trying to keep this PG), saying she’s throwing a party and needs your help getting things out of her car. You step outside, and immediately, a huge space-thingy warps in the middle of your street with a bunch of aliens charging out of it.

While you hide behind her car, an alien is shot by one of his companions who quickly warps away, leaving you safe to walk over and pick up his gun. The gun then shoots juice at you, which provides you with the ability to understand and communicate with him. Immediately, he explains how

your entire species is going to be turned into drugs by a dangerous cartel called the G3, and that you need to help him fight them, and escape to another planet before the Earth is destroyed.

If you retained any of that info, I’d say I did a decent job there, really.

High on Life is a game that exists. Despite how wacky and chaotic the game’s first few minutes must sound; I can’t say that I was really blown away

beyond its opening section. As someone who was really anticipating its release after it’d been announced, by the time I’d got my hands on High on Life and completed my first playthrough, I was left thankful that the game was finally over, rather than craving any more content.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing it, and it isn’t at all an inherently ‘bad’ game, but for the majority of my playtime – there was

nothing that really made the game feel all that special to me outside of there being a gun who had a voice similar to Morty from Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty.

The game is very Borderlands-esque, both humour and gameplay wise. To some people, that probably sounds amazing, but to others, alarming. I’m a pretty big Borderlands fan, so I didn’t find this to be the game’s biggest problem – but as with that style of comedy, often, there can be a fine line between jokes being amusing – and straight-up insufferable. High on Life certainly crossed this from time to time, and I’m sure this probably resulted in a lot of players getting sick of it after only a few hours.

The humour did get pretty irritating and repetitive after a while, even for me, but I stuck through seeing as I was almost finished with the game by the time that I truly wanted to turn it off. With that, High on Life didn’t overstay its welcome, as it only took me about eight

hours to complete. The short length wasn’t to the game’s detriment, as the endless area clearing and bosshunting would have become tiring had it been any longer.

On a more positive note, the voiceacting was topnotch, and all the Gatlians (which are the talking guns that you pick up throughout the game) had some superb voice actors and actresses who gave charming performances, which overall helped the game’s comedy feel less grating. Expectedly, Justin Roiland, who at the time of writing this has been dropped by Adult Swim, voiced multiple characters and used his iconic Morty inflection for your main Gatlian, Kenny. The recognisable voice of David Herman, most known for his work in Futurama and Bob’s Burgers for voicing Gene, as your bounty-hunting mentor, was a nice surprise.

I can give props to the developers at Squanch Games for making the effort

to create a new IP, rather than taking what would’ve been the easier and more lucrative route, which would’ve been just simply developing a Rick and Morty game. Still, if you hate shows like Rick and Morty with a passion, or have grown tired of the show’s pointlessly crude jokes and style – I’d be confident to advise you not to play High on Life as it probably won’t be your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you’re like me and still enjoy watching the show every now and then, there’s no reason why the game wouldn’t be worth a shot. The game isn’t without its problems - it’s almost too linear, feeling like less of an exciting open world you want to uncover and more of a cluster of areas you visit to defeat a boss once. High on Life is straightforward, and an amusing experience, but certainly isn’t memorable, and will likely gather dust on my shelf until I can be bothered to trade it in for a generous £1.50 at CeX in the future.

Rating: 3/5

Aaron Byrne (he/him)

High On Life: “I was left thankful that the game was finally over”

Descibing High on Life’s premise on paper is near impossible

“

Image Credits: Squanch Games

Games

Fresh games

The 2023 releases we’re most excited for

Multiple contributors

According to Polygon, we should be expecting over 100 major game releases in 2023. From remakes of celebrated classics like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, to highly anticipated RPGS including Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy and Assassins Creed Mirage.

There’s even hopes for the infamous Starfield release in the first half of the year, but with so many games to choose from, we wanted to find out which release people were most excited for.

Star Wars Jedi: SurvivorSophie Layton (she/her)

Following the hit success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in 2019, Respawn Entertainment is back this year with the release of the sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Set five years after the first instalment (making it ten years after Revenge of the Sith and nine years before Rogue One and A New Hope), we return to follow Cal Kestis and BD-1 as they are pursued by the Empire once again.

The first game told the story of Cal and how he escaped from Order 66 and went into exile on the scrapper world of Bracca. After using the force to save his friend, he found himself pursued by the Second Sister and Ninth Sister of the Empire’s Inqusitiorius, a band of Jedi hunters. Escaping thanks to the help of Cere and Greez, Cal journeyed across the galaxy to prevent the Empire from obtaining a holocron with a list of force-sensitive children from Bogano, rediscovering his Jedi powers and facing his past.

With its precursor winning the NME Best Game award in 2020, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor seems set to continue the trend, with new move sets, incredible

graphics and new characters to face as we continue to roam the galaxy as one of the few Jedi left in the grip of the Imperial galaxy.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor releases April 28th on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/ S.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom - Adam Thomas (he/him)

Following the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild in 2017, fans of the long-time Nintendo franchise have been grappling for more of the same openworld style Zelda content, whether in major DLC updates or a full-blown sequel.

Unfortunately, the development of the next Legend Of Zelda game “Tears Of The King dom” has been heavily delayed after production was affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. Despite hiccups in the release of the highly awaited title it will finally be released nearly six years after its predecessor on May 12th 2023, with

a continuation of the story that saw Link awake in the Shrine of Resurrection 100 years after the great calamity.

From its initial unveiling in a short-form teaser trailer in 2019 to a longer cinematic trailer at E3 2021, it is clear the new Open World Adventure game will have a heavy focus on systems and spaces below and above Hyrule Kingdom, largely orientating around time.

The changes going from the 2017 reboot of the series to this sequel have been constantly contested by fans, as many have complained that inadequate changes and a lack of new features and things to do may have warranted more DLC rather than a fully-fledged new game.

The period of six years between titles has also seen some vast technological changes in gaming that have seen the launch of a new generation of consoles for both Xbox and PlayStation.

So, the question is, will the game be ground-breaking in the same way as Breath of The Wild was, in its seamless open-world format on a handheld console? Will it still be able to run on the now-old Nintendo Switch hardware that hasn’t been updated since the launch of the console in 2017? Time will tell… and so will the story of the game from what we’ve seen so far!

Legend Of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releases May 12th on Nintendo Switch Diablo IV: Carla Biteanu (she/her)

The battle between the High Heavens and Burning Hell continues in the upcoming instalment of Diablo. Lilith has returned after her exile, summoning evil – her path will cross with the former fallen archangel of the High Heavens, Inarius. The world they created is now at risk of being destroyed.

Quarterly updates from the developers have shown the evolution of the open world, with different regions of the world featuring different biomes and secret areas to explore.

In the March 2022 update, the team spoke of how there is expected to be over 150

dungeons to battle, the prealpha artwork itself looking stunning with a gothic horror style influencing the settings.

In the same update, Chris Ryder, art director of environments, discussed how the game has taken a “darker and more grounded” approach to creating environments in comparison to previous instalments. That means we can expect to see regional weather conditions, varied local biomes and the world of Sanctuary reflecting the struggle, conflict and history of the land.

Character creation allows for players to choose from five classes, barbarian, druid, necromancer, rogue and sourcer - each with different skills and abilities. The world building, art and development within gameplay makes it seem as though Diablo IV will provide hours of content and exploration, alongside atmospheric graphics and an immersive gaming experience.

Diablo IV releases June 2nd on PS5/4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC. Are there any upcoming releases you can’t wait to play? Get in touch at forgepress.games@sheffield.

Hogwarts Legacy PS5, PS4, Nintendo switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC Explore the Wizarding World in this immersive open-world action RPG.

Octopath Traveler II PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC Explore the tales of eight travellers from Solista, step into their shoes and discover the stories within this vast realm .

Wild Hearts PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PC Wild Hearts sees players become masters of ancient technologies and hunt down giant nature-infused beasts.

Image credits: Blizzard Entertainment, Nintendo, Avalanche Software, Square Enix, EA Originals

Is the FA doing enough to support mothers?

face in their professional careers has a tendency to turn budding stars of the future away from the sport as they get older. As if the pay disparity and disrespectful attitude towards the female game is not enough to contend with!

LGBTQ+ sport: What does the steel city have to offer?

Faith Suronku-Lindsay

(she/ her)

At the beginning of this year, Women’s Super League Reading player Emma Mukandi shone a spotlight on her personal experience with the FA’s maternity policy, and in doing so encouraged a questioning of its validity in women’s football. It is through this current policy that mothers are entitled to just 14 weeks of full pay, before being expected to return to a rigorous schedule of fulltime training.

That figure is almost half the amount of statutory maternity leave granted to the majority of female employees in the UK. This begs the question, are the FA truly doing everything they can to support mothers in football? The Lionesses’ victory in the 2022 Euros has sparked a new interest in the game amongst young women, an atmosphere which the FA has assured they are committed to supporting.

However, such poor attention to the issues that female footballers may

The fact that these current maternity measures were not introduced until early 2022, all seems very little, very late.

The changes came under much scrutiny following the initial announcement, with several MPs calling for sports minister Nigel Huddleston to review the government’s attitudes towards women’s football. This suggestion was not taken seriously, and so that criticism has not died down, with a number of female footballers highlighting the need for maternity support to go beyond maternity pay.

Undoubtedly, it should also be a priority for the FA to discuss the support available for mothers after those 14 weeks leave. Whilst larger clubs in the WSL, such as Chelsea and Arsenal, have both the finances

and facilities to more fairly support individual mothers’ circumstances at their discretion, smaller clubs do not, creating a disparity between women in the game. Notably, this is an issue that goes beyond the FA, as highlighted through the experiences of American player Alex Morgan and Juventus midfielder Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, whose recent lawsuit against Olympique Lyon gained much traction. It was through this successful outcome that the club were held accountable for withholding Gunnarsdóttir’s salary during her maternity leave. This sent a clear message to those larger clubs that taking advantage of maternity leave is no longer an acceptable option. Whilst this issue is not at the forefront of British football, it is certainly one that deserves more attention. The future women of football deserve to be able to play in a safe and inclusive environment, without being hindered by poor patriarchal attitudes.

Inclusion within sport for the LGBT community is often lacking, with Stonewall statistics stating that only 43% of sport fans think live sport events are welcoming for LGBTQ+ fans. Sheffield is home to a number of LGBTQ+ sports teams and groups which aim to bring people from the community together and create a supportive and welcoming environment. Sheffield Vulcans RUFC is an inclusive rugby club which was set up as a part of the IGR’s Spirit of Rugby Campaign. Their website states: “Our main aim is provide a safe place for anyone from the LGBTQIA+ community and for anyone in general to participate in sports without worry of prejudice.” The Rugby club’s Tuesday sessions are open to anyone of any sexuality, size or experience – making them a hub for rugby enthusiasts of any background to get into active participation. From a football perspective, Rainbow Laces is a subsection of the Rainbow Blades group which runs football tournaments to promote inclusion in sport for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The idea of rainbow laces stems from a Stonewall campaign in

which allies of the LGBTQ+ community were encouraged to wear rainbow shoelaces to help build a sense of inclusion in sport. The campaign has extended to all levels of English football, as an indication of the sport’s willingness to tackle homophobia.

TransActive is a group which aims to help the transgender community in and around Sheffield to socialise and get involved in sports and fitness activities in a relaxed and friendly environment. The group currently runs weekly swimming sessions at Heeley Pool as well as other activities such as climbing, cycling and yoga. Anyone who identifies as trans or non-binary, including people who are questioning their gender identity, are invited to join in the fun.

Fri-Gay at the Climbing Hangar is a huge hub for rock climbing, making it a must try sport while living in the city. If you are looking to get involved in rock climbing, the hangar hosts a weekly LGBTQ+ night. Fri-Gay runs every Friday from 6:30pm –9:00pm and provides a social space for casual coaching.

As you can tell, there are loads of LGBTQ+ sporting institutions across Sheffield for students to get involved with, so throw yourselves in.

Megan Cooke (she/her)

Emma Mukandi (Credit: The Times)

Credit: Sheffield Vulcans RUFC

WSL action. Credit: Photoautomotive, Flickr

Sheffield United defeat National League hopefuls to pass the FA Cup fourth round

league side and the scores remained level at 0-0.

Phil Parkinson’s Wrexham side had everything to prove against Premier Leagueseeking Sheffield United at the Racecourse Ground. As the biggest game the Welsh side had faced since American A-List celebrities Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over the club, it was the perfect opportunity to send a message to EFL teams about the intentions of a leagueclimbing journey; not to mention how a cup upset would look good for the Documentary.

However, despite a fiercely contested game in which Ryan Reynolds was in attendance, and a classic 5-star Wrexham performance, Blades defender John Egan rescued the Blades allowing them one more chance with a replay. United seemed to be taken by surprise at the ability and determination of Wrexham to turn the game around.

Before the match, Paul Heckingbottom affirmed that his side would not be complacent against the National League squad and Sheffield

United looked solid. But ultimately a comeback driven by the magic of the FA Cup saw the cup tie ended 3-3 with plenty of drama from both sides. For the home side, who was dominant for most of the match, the result of the replay was fair. The match was rounded off in stoppage time after Billy Sharp rolled back the years to sink Wrexham’s hearts in the 94th minute. Shortly afterwards Sander Berge made it 3-1 to confirm a Blades match against Tottenham Hotspur in the next round.

Ollie Norwood and Max Lowe, but starts were granted to Ismaila Coulibaly along with Chris Basham, marking his 500th professional appearance.

Both teams fielded strong sides with Wrexham including long-throw merchant Ben Tozer and the competition’s leading goal-scorer amongst their ranks and ex-Luton Town midfielder Elliot Lee named as a substitute. Sheffield United rested

The game started with the home side having two big chances from corners, one of Egan’s headers was saved well by the Wrexham keeper. The first huge opportunity again came to the home side in the 28th minute, when James McAtee was through 1v1, (and had Iliman Ndiaye in support) after a quick counterattack from a Wrexham corner. The onloan midfielder couldn’t hit the target and placed his shot wide of the post, much to the amusement of the travelling fans behind the goal. There was another huge chance for the home side to break the deadlock when Ndiaye worked the ball brilliantly down the right side and looped a cross into Bosnian international Anel Ahmedhodzic who smashed an effort that was well saved by keeper Rob Lainton. Some half chances did drop to the home side registering 16 shots in the first half. Half-time came at a good time for the national

As the game resumed, the Blades continued their promising performance in the second half. Thanks to some great work on the right by Basham and Osborn, United took an early lead in the 51st minute, finished brilliantly by Ahmedhodzic. The away fans continued their great support despite being a goal down and were rewarded when Paul Mullin was pulled to the ground in the 58th minute. Some replays seemed to show initial contact outside the area, but there was no VAR so no intervention. As he so often does Mullin stepped up and slotted his penalty sending Davies the wrong way. Flares were set off and the home support was in disarray after Wrexham’s first real chance had the cup tie all square.

Just ten minutes later substitute Ollie Norwood tackled Mullin again from behind and the away side was correctly awarded a second penalty. The pressure was immense on the striker’s shoulders, and just as Kane had done in Qatar, Mullin scored his first but missed his second penalty. Again going for power, Davies guessed the right way and made a fantastic stop to keep the score at 1-1.

There were few chances after the penalty miss, with the exception of Sharp’s disallowed goal for a correct call for offside. Sharp went too early and strayed offside. Towards the later stages, Paul Mullin was subbed off, Jacob Bickerstaff came on and Elliot Lee replaced Andy Cannon which seemed to ease pressure on the home side. Mullin’s substitution was greeted with boos from the Sheffield United faithfuls.

Wrexham’s hearts were finally broken when Billy Sharp slotted a stoppage-

time winner, after a great counterattack from the home side. Then to make matters worse another brilliant counterattack and some clever improvisation from McAtee to stay on his feet led to the 4th and final goal of the match. Sander Berge got his name on the score sheet and booked the Blades’ place in the 5th round to take on Antonio Conte’s Spurs. On the whole, the home side did deserve to win and should have had the game finished by half time, but some intelligent movement from Mullin managed to make this a nervy win for the Championship side.

Sheffield United: Adam Davies, Ben Osborn, John Egan, Chris Basham, Anel Ahmedhodzic (78’ Max Lowe), Jack Robinson, Ismaila Coulibaly (68’ Ollie Norwood), James McAtee (90+8’ Andre Brooks), Sander Berge (Goal 90+6’), Billy Sharp (Goal 90+4’), Iliman Ndiaye

Wrexham: Rob Lainton, Anthony Forde, Max Cleworth, Ben Tozer, Harry Lennon (74’ Thomas O’Connor), Jacob Mandy (60’ Liam McAlinden), James Jones, Luke Young, Andrew Cannon (82’ Elliot Lee), Sam Dalby (60’ Ollie Palmer), Paul Mullin (Goal 59’, Pen Missed 72’, Jake Bickerstaff 82’).

Referee: Leigh Doughty

Sheffield United Bookings: John Egan 75’, Ismaila Coulibaly 45+2’, Sander Berge 90+3’

Wrexham bookings: None

HT: 0-0

FT: 3-1

Attendance: 20,310

Man of the Match: Sander Berge

Adam Thomas (he/him), David Cassey (he/him)

“ Ultimately a comeback driven by the magic of the FA Cup saw the cup tie end 3-3, with plenty of drama from both sides

Report: Owls beat Plymouth to go top

Tom Mangan (he/him)

Over 33,000 expectant Wednesday fans were packed into Hillsborough for saturday afternoon’s eagerly anticipated clash between League One’s league leaders in Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth Argyle.

The Owls were coming into the match in red hot form having won their last five in the league and also had the added momentum of a huge win over Premier League top four hopefuls Newcastle in the FA Cup.

However, Steven Schumaccer’s Plymouth were hardly struggling for form themselves being unbeaten in their last 10 games meaning the stage was perfectly set for what was perhaps the biggest game of the league one campaign thus far.

Wednesdays’ game could hardly have started any

Sports Society Spotlight: Sabrecats put on dazzling show at showcase

better as they took the lead early on despite Plymouth looking comfortable in possession in the opening stages.

Will Vaulks found himself on the right flank and whipped in a sumptuous cross for Callum Patterson who volleyed home from just outside the six yard box to make it 1-0 to Darren Moore’s Owls.

This goal spurred both the team and the Wednesday faithful on and they enjoyed a period of more sustained pressure for the next 15 minutes.

Aden Flint missed a huge chance in the 15th minute after Vaulks’ volley resulted in a goalmouth scramble, the ball fell to the centre half in the six yard box however his effort was sharply saved by Michael Cooper for Plymouth.

However, Plymouth were able to get a better foothold in the game following this period with the midfielders showing an ability to maintain possession effectively.

In spite of this they were unable to break down the Wednesday defence as their biggest chance of the half came from a free kick from the edge of the box yet

Tyreik Wright’s effort was saved by Cameron Dawson. The third quarter of the match seemed to follow a similar trend with Plymouth seeing more of the ball but being unable to create high quality chances.

Wednesdays’ resolute defending and tireless work ethic meant Plymouth were limited to half chances with Gillesphey and Hardie both having very ambitious efforts.

Darren Moore’s decision to switch his forwards in the 74th minute proved fruitful as Wilks and Gregory gave Wednesday an outlet towards the end of the game. Wilks was particularly impactful and would have had an assist if not for the offside flag disallowing George Byers’ strike in the 80th minute.

The striker also had an effort on target in the 89th minute whilst Plymouth were again unable to create any chances of note meaning the final whistle was met with a thunderous roar as Wednesday went top of the league.

Aden Flint was a standout for Sheffield Wednesday, as he put himself in front of every ball.

The University of Sheffield’s cheerleading team known as the Sheffield Sabrecats demonstrated their captivating routines at their annual cheer showcase. The event, which saw around 700 spectators attend, was well organised and kept friends and family of the cheerleaders entertained for the event’s duration.

Sheffield Sabrecats are one of the University’s largest societies and is made up of seven teams in total belonging to either the stunt section of cheerleading or the pom section.

Stunt consists of four different teams with three of them competing at three different difficulty levels against other universities across the country.

As for Pom, that is made up of three teams which are Varsity Cheer Dance, Varsity Performance and finally the Competition squad.

On the night, each team had the chance to showcase their complex dances which they have been working hard

to perfect over the last few months.

Each routine was memorable in different ways whether that be the jaw-dropping flips and lifts showcased by the stunt teams or the impressive synchronisation put on display by pom.

As a further show of skill, one stunt team used a long jump pad to demonstrate a series of jumps, flips and turns which was met with applause by the enthralled audience.

Due to the size of the cheerleading society, there were many committee members such as coaches and captains who were given thanks and appreciation for the work they put in which involves choreographing the dances and organising weekly training for each team.

The show was a great display of athleticism, rhythm and choreography and is a good sign that the Sabrecats will perform well in their upcoming competitions as well as the highly anticipated Varsity.

Credit: Sheffield Wednesday / Twitter

Sam Quine (he/him)

Credit: VSP Images