Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor

Dear Spirit readers,

The last issue of 2020 has arrived! I’m grateful to my Editorial Team and writers for the efforts they’ve put in these past few weeks – this issue has shaped up to be a great one.

This issue we’re thrilled to announce the return of our podcast in collaboration with SOAS Radio. You can ‘That’s the Spirit’ over on SOAS Radio’s SoundCloud. For this episode, myself and the Co-Editors, Louisa and Basit, were joined by Pickle (SOAS News Editor), Anna (Opinion Editor) and Artemis (Sports & Societies Editor) for a discussion on all the highlights from Issue 14.

But the great news doesn’t stop there: The SOAS Spirit is the most recent member of the Student Publication Association! If you’re part of the Spirit team in any way – either as a member of our Editorial Team or as a writer – you can head over to their website to make the most of all the perks available for members, from training schemes and resources, to events and awards.

This issue’s front cover story takes a deep dive into the consequences of a SOAS policy that forced SOAS canteen staff to choose between voluntary severance and involuntary redundancy. Luckily, nobody was made redundant

against their will – but this policy has caused a lot of outrage in the SOAS community. This article is packed with exclusive content from interviews carried out by our regular contributor, Lara Gibbs – and it’s not one to be missed.

On a more positive note, I wrote an article highlighting all the support schemes available to SOAS students from Student Advice and Wellbeing and the SU. These are difficult times for us all, so I urge you to reach out and make use of all these amazing initiatives.

National News is packed with some amazing articles (and amazing headlines too): everything from Covid, to parliament, to Black British rights. International News covers an equally broad range of topics, extending our coverage of the crisis in Ethiopia, Covid vaccines, Peru’s impeachment and human rights in the Western Sahara.

An article I’m particularly intrigued by is Millie Glaister’s insightful Opinion piece on SOAS’s Transformation and Change process – which was ostensibly put in place to save SOAS, but has had adverse affects on the SOAS community. Weronika Krupa’s article on the Abortion ban in Poland serves as a poignant reminder to stand in solidarity with each other in the face of injustice.

Features has some really fun pieces this issue – along with a recipe for leek and potato soup that looks delicious, our Features Editor, Ella, has created a linguistics puzzle, and our Culture Editor, Destiny, has created a word search. Speaking of which, in Culture we have some articles that are festive yet critical (in the spirit of the Spirit!). Head on over to discover some inclusive Christmas films and read Chiara Stennett’s excellent analysis of the racist outrage over Christmas adverts featuring Black families.

Yet again, our Sports and Societies Editor, Artemis, has truly outdone herself. This section is about so much more than it seems – Artemis has curated a section that uses sports and SOAS societies to tackle really important social, political and global issues.

As always, we love to hear your comments and thoughts – please reach out to us on social media @soasspirit or by email to get involved in the discussion, or if you’d like to join us for next issue!

Maliha Shoaib Managing Editor