Features

  Stephanie is a first year English and Theatre student, and our new Deputy Features Editor! She talks to our Editor, Holly Pyne, about why she joined The Orbital. Why did you choose Royal Holloway? I chose Royal Holloway because I really liked the joint honours course and being so close to London for a drama student is great, but I also wanted a beautiful green campus! I loved the feeling of community here, and I fell in love with founders library! Why did you get involved with The Orbital? I really want to get involved and get experience with any form of writing and media. I love to write and create work with other people, but also wanted to opportunity to meet new people too, so Orbital is perfect for me. What do you hope to achieve within the section? I hope t...

Returning to university as a postgraduate prompted me to reflect on my hazy undergraduate days back in 2004-2007. My most striking memories are of new friends, the novelty of living away from home and the endless reading in the library. Another lasting impression was the drinking culture. A typical day in the life of an undergraduate in 2004 consisted of midweek dancing with a ‘snakebite’ in hand, recovering from a hangover by watching neighbours (pre Netflix) and a red bull fuelled sprint to the essay deadline. Coming back to university years later it seems the culture is changing. Back in early 2000’s the Internet was not such a big part of student life. Facebook had only just been born, there were no friend requests from mums and aunties, just other students slowly creeping over from...

France, a country where people are made to believe in the consoling myth of equality to all citizens ‘without distinction of origin, color of skin or religion’. It is clear that terrorist attacks in France have tailored the opinions of many people both social and political, along with reviving the notion of ‘French identity’. The phrase ‘French identity’ nowadays usually emerges following a terrorist attack in French society. It is also often discussed when explicitly referring to the banlieues (suburbs) and their residents, most of whom are people from the Maghreb region (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and whose appearance, which may cause provocation amidst this social turbulence, typifies the perceivable element of their identity. When the concept of ‘French identity’ is discussed, the que...

Royal Holloway Question Time was held in the Windsor Auditorium on the 6th October. Organised by the Labour and Cooperative Society, the panel consisted of Richard Angell as Director of Progress, Tom Brake standing for the Liberal Democrats MP, the SU President Natasha Barrett, Claire McCarthy for General Secretary of the Cooperative Party and Michel Howe as the Conservative Society President. As the first Question Time event held so far, it was considered a great success held by all. Topics and questions raised by the audience included whether politics is getting to aggressive as a response to the murder of Jo Cox and other recent attacks on MPs. The board blamed these mainly on the apparent rise of hate crime stemming form the EU Referendum and also on the opinion that the rise of ...