Elaine Wang:
Class of 2018, Taiwan
International Relations Major (National Economics Development Concentration), Community Health Major, Economics Minor
Somya Banwari:
Class of 2018, Manila, Phillipines
International Relations Major, Computer Science Major
Jacob Hafey:
Class of 2018, Los Angelos, CA
International Relations Major (East Asia Concentration), Chinese Major
What is DIRECT?
DIRECT (Discussing International Relations and Exploring Current Trend) is a way to discuss foreign affairs in a non-partisan forum. We want to incorporate perspectives and theories students learn in Intro to IR and tie them to current news and how students feel about it. We want to explore beyond the classical theories and readings students learn in Intro to IR.
Why did you start the club?
We feel like at tufts, there are plenty of IR discussion forums like ALLIES or STEMS, but there’s no community that incorporates all different aspects in one place. We want students to have somewhere to go to and learn about what happens in the world that week and talk about contemporary news, and use the theories raised by professional as a tool to discuss current trends. We also want to build a stronger IR community on campus and make the IR community more accessible to all.
What’s your favorite part about starting DIRECT?
Our favorite part is having the opportunity to offer students what we feel is severely lacked on campus. We want to create a more tightly-knitted, inclusive IR community, where students can share beliefs and thoughts with each other. We’d like to emulate the computer science community on campus (Tufts CSX), have professional speaker events that students can go to, and make the IR community more resourceful to students.
Upcoming Events:
GIM: Sep 28th, 7PM
We’ll invite professionals in IR fields to speak on campus. The event will be open to all interested students so keep tuned! We’re also planning to hold a semester long regional focused events, hopefully collaborations with culture clubs on campus, and invite professionals and students to talk about their experiences. We’d love to incorporate as many varying voices as possible.
Contact Information:
E-mail: tuftsdirect@gmail.com