Beaches, Hackers and Brexit

 A view of St Andrews from West Sands.

My final module is called Cosmopolitanism and Global Politics and in this seminar we examine the historical and contemporary debates surrounding the concept of cosmopolitanism. I have decided to focus my last St Andrews research paper on the hacker group Anonymous and analyse whether their statements and practices are consistent with the cosmopolitan worldview. I have a research interest in the interaction between digital media and society and thought it would be an interesting challenge to compare this 21st-century movement with texts from Ancient Greece.

I started 2016 with a resolution to read a new book every two weeks that is completely unconnected to my studies. The first book on my list was Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. Although the book is dedicated to “encouraging women to pursue their ambitions”, I think the book should be on the reading list of every aspiring college graduate.

With the Brexit referendum confirmed for 23 June (just two days after my graduation), the debate about the advantages and disadvantages of the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union intensifies. Although non-UK EU students will not be able to vote in the referendum, I expect that many of us will actively engage in the because Brexit would have a serious impact on us – students. With ancient universities in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and St Andrews, Scotland has more world-class universities per head than anywhere else. Currently, EU students do not pay tuition fees at Scottish universities but this would change with a “Leave” vote and EU students would have to pay up to £20,000 a year in tuition. Only a few would be able to afford it. Another big question is whether Scotland would remain a part of the United Kingdom if there was a “Leave” vote in the referendum. Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, already warned that a vote for Brexit would most likely trigger a second independence referendum in Scotland. The next few months will be certainly interesting!