It has been a pretty eventful few weeks in the world and my life, but also at Concrete. Taylor Swift randomly dropped a new album (see Matt’s column for more in-depth thoughts than I could ever provide), I got my degree results after a very long wait, and Concrete unveiled our brand-new website design! Where…
Editor's column
New beginnings and a reflection
Here it is, the first editorial I am writing as Editor-in-Chief of Concrete. I wish I was writing this under different circumstances, with a print issue being scattered around UEA and campus bustling with people who read our publication. Instead, I sit at home in Edinburgh, hundreds of miles from Norwich and even further from…
Editor's column
More often than not money trumps morality
In times like this kindness often flies out of the window but can we really blame anyone? Isn’t it all about money in the end? If we realise that, perhaps we can survive lockdown and soldier through the coming economic recession without losing too many illusions. It’s a case of money versus morality. Let’s apply…
Editor's column
Another issue, another dawn
We’re almost there, as Jess writes in her Deputy Editorial column today. Applications for the next Editor-in-Chief and Deputy will soon close, and now only one more issue remains of the semester. I doubt anyone expected we’d be in a lockdown, many of us away from UEA, taking classes online. Yet even though we’re away, university…
Editor's column
Pushing past the lockdown blues
Usually I write my editorial in the Media Office, looking out over the Square while I wonder how I’ve managed to leave it to the last minute yet again. The deadline rush hasn’t changed, but the setting has. I’m sitting at home, surrounded by stacks of books (you can probably guess who my module focuses…
Editor's column
Keep washing your hands!
Summatives, choosing a career path, getting that summer bod – these are just a few of life’s stresses. And now there’s coronavirus to worry about. It’s just not fair is it? I’ve decided to use my editorial this issue to suggest some ways to steer clear of the virus, and hopefully dispel a few myths…
Editor's column
The strikes should affect research, not students’ classes
Yesterday was the first meaningful day of lecturers’ strikes as part of industrial action that will last 14 days over four weeks. I say meaningful because this was actually the third day of strikes, the first two falling in UEA’s reading week. I’d like to make something clear. Lecturers at UEA are striking owing to…
Editor's column
Sex, storms and sleepiness
Of all the issues we’ve worked on so far, this has been the most tough. Perhaps the Sex and Drugs Survey is to blame: an extra 24 pages of juicy (yes) content to lay up. Or maybe it was Storm Ciara: a depressingly damp finish to what I thought may have been the beginnings of…
Editor's column
Concrete at the dawn of a new decade
Welcome to Concrete’s first issue of the new decade. We’re happy to be back, and this issue is packed with content. From Piriyanga Thirunimalan’s dissection of the media blackout in India to Ted Tuthill-Jones’ report on UEA’s postponement of a talk by feminist speaker Prof Kathleen Stock, this edition is sure to captivate you. A…