Why study politics? An international student’s perspective

Why does anyone study politics? Why does someone decide to get a degree in political science? What motivates students to dedicate 3 or 4 years of their life to this? No doubt a degree in politics can lead to a range of interesting careers. And what about those who can’t escape politics?

During my first year studying International Relations at Edinburgh University I was exposed to a new world I didn't know existed. I learned that there are theories of international relations, where realism and liberalism appear as the two most favoured. The other thing I was exposed to was how relevant the slogan “personal is political” was to me, as someone who fled a war-zone inUkraine. For me, the “personal” has been deeply “political” as the place where I grew up has often been a case study in our classes. It felt surreal to hear a variety of accents talking about my home when answering the tutor’s questions about the nature of the “conflict”, “solutions” and future “scenarios”. I felt bewildered when I and my classmates were looking at the map of Ukraine, where the fat red line divides the occupied and free Ukraine. Especially since my hometown Melitopol was, and remains,beyond the “controlled by Ukrainian authority” line.

The Russian-Ukrainian war undoubtedly provides excellent examples with which to demonstrate theories of international relations. However, class discussion often led me to think of the Ukraine of my childhood. The place where I spent my summers on the coast of the Sea of Azov, sunbathing and sunburning, eating chocolate ice cream in waffles and trying to beat my mum in swimming races. Thoughts too of my home as it is in winter; ice skating and black teas with lemon in a thermos. Now a place where many of my former classmates give up their youth and their dreams to fight against occupation.

Back then I found it disturbingly strange to have such different relationships with the same place. The feeling of the gap between me and my peers was hard to articulate, and the phrase “you just don't understand” lodged at the back of my head. I felt lonely and misunderstood. I saw pity and discomfort in the faces of my peers. The urgent desire to be understood and heard motivated me to search for already established voices. Unsurprisingly, the scholars I felt a deeper intellectual connection with were those who try to contextualise the unfortunate events they witnessed and were impacted by.

The works of decolonial and feminist thinkers encouraged me to search for  links between the past and current political developments. It made me wonder in what way my experience relates to other contexts. The language I learn from those scholars has helped me to navigate the world around me to myself, and share those insights with others.

I was excited to find an understanding in the texts of authors, who usually look at the power imbalance and social hierarchies as a tool to understand the reality. For example, Chinua Achebe’s famous quote, “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter”, This is what motivated me to study politics and the different experiences of it; not only the ones written by the hunters.

In conclusion, for me, politics could be studied as a way to explore the world. and one's own experiences as a human being in relation to the different context. I have found studying politics is a bit like fishing for answers and acquiring new questions about oneself and the world.

Please note the views expressed in this blog are those of the author and not necessarily those of the PSA.

Yelyzaveta Yeroshkina is a 4th year International Relations & Politics student at the University of Edinburgh, having previously studied journalism at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University in Ukraine.