Old Members’ Trust Graduate Travel Report – Farsan Ghassim, DPhil International Relations

In September 2018, the Old Members’ Trust supported my trip to the national convention of the German Political Science Association (GPSA). The title of the four-day conference from 25 to 28 September 2018 was “Frontiers of Democracy”.

My working paper on the global democratic deficit was accepted for the panel on “The meaning of (different) democracy (understandings) in the context of current developments” organized by Dr. Toralf Stark and Christoph Mohamad-Klotzbach at the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and Würzburg respectively. Other panelists included Christian Welzel, Vice-President of the World Values Survey; Susanne Pickel, Professor of comparative politics at the University of Duisburg-Essen; and Heike Holbig, Professor of Chinese / East Asian area studies at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Presenting my paper on such a high-profile panel and to a correspondingly large audience was a great opportunity for me to gather experience in presenting at international conferences and to receive valuable feedback on my working paper. I have since revised my paper based on the feedback that I got at the conference and have presented an updated version at our departmental DPhil seminar in Oxford.

These opportunities to present my ongoing work and make connections with international scholars in my discipline are very valuable for my academic progress.

I am extremely grateful to the Old Members’ Trust for the generous support it provided.

Find out more about the range of travel grants and scholarships available to assist Univ students on our Travel Grants page or read further travel reports.

Published: 28 January 2019

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