Jo Daly

Co-Founder, Head of Broadcasting

Jo is a third year Maths student from Glasgow. He has a particular interest in national identity and languages, which has lead him to learning twenty national anthems and gathering an impressive quantity of flags. His proudest achievement is maintaining a four-year Duolingo streak.

Twitter: @Viregel

Martin Caforio

Co-Founder, Chief Editor

Martin is a third year International Relations and Arabic student from Rome. When he is not busy with his hobby (reminding everyone of his “brief” stint as a Hilltern), Martin can be found directing or acting in plays, reading about the evolution and demise of Italian coalition governments, and tweeting about the Massachusetts Senate Delegation.

Sara Weissel

Co-Founder, Managing Editor

Sara is a third year Philosophy Student from Washington D.C. When asked to provide hobbies and interests, she replied ‘the punk-rock lifestyle takes internet privacy very seriously.’

Twitter: @weisselsara

Julia Swerdlow

Head of Publicity and Design

Julia is a third year Geography student from New York. When not shamelessly promoting her radio show, she can be found discussing the many and diverse uses for a geography degree. Some say she can point out almost any country you can name on a map, but is yet to be put to the test.

Alasdair Richmond

Head of Web

Alasdair is a first year Physics and Maths student who’s also a keen musician. A member of the Rector’s Committee, he’s also the Freshers’ Rep for both Saints LGBT and the Gilbert and Sullivan society. Usually caught in the act of making more coffee he can also be spotted, on occasion, updating the Polis website - granted with coffee in hand. When feeling rather political, an essay by Arundhati Roy is found in hand - when tired, some good music from Spotify. (Please send music suggestions)

Hilary Chan

Head Writer

Hilary is a third year Psychology and Philosophy student, she is very happy to appear on this profile and says 'hello'.

Aaryan Ahuja

Head of Strategy

I am Aaryan Ahuja the Head of Strategy for Polis Media and a second year Econ and Management student. I love playing the guitar, 'trying' to play football and acting! Besides that I have founded and co-founded a few student run start ups and have a penchant for numbers. I am really excited to be a part of the Polis Media team and to everyone reading this, stay tuned and be prepared for some Insightful, Informative and Independent news!

Catie Medick

Editor

Catie is a second year English and Classical Studies student from Washington D.C. Some of her favourite things include lacrosse, Nora Ephron films, and winning at Scrabble. She is very passionate about Oxford commas.

Delaney Flanigan

Editor

Delaney is a third year at St Andrews studying International Relations. I am originally from Denver, Colorado and when I’m not studying, you can find me hiking or waiting in the block-long line at Pret to get my 5th coffee of the day.

George Watts

Editor

George is a 3rd year International Relations student who can neither play the piano nor tie his own tie. He may never have mentioned it, but he used to live in India and has a big interest in South East Asian politics. He is in a complicated relationship with the Welsh Independence movement, in the sense that he lives far away from it and sounds a bit too much like Boris. When intoxicated, he speaks French, English, Welsh, and Hindi. When sober, he mostly bumbles. He has a seemingly endless supply of quasi-identical jumpers and has never quite learnt how to process dairy.

James Samuel

Editor

James is a third year Medieval and Art History student from Kent. He likes to look at paintings and read about the past to escape from the dire state of the real world today. Other interests include, but are not limited to, music, sport, and wasting money.

Jasmine Humphrey

Editor

Jasmine is a fourth year French and International Relations student from the West Highlands of Scotland. Having recently returned from her year abroad in France, she can be found drinking outrageously strong coffee and getting too emotionally invested in French novels. Otherwise, she enjoys long runs on West Sands, playing piano, and thinking about foreign policy.

Surina Martin

Editor

Surina is a third year International Relations and Social Anthropology student from Brunei. She’d make a Bruneian society, but to her knowledge she’s the only one in St. Andrews. If you don’t take sugar with your coffee, feel free to give it to her and she’ll add it to the 4 packets already in her drink.

Abigail Mongeau

Staff Writer

Abigail is a Third Year Medieval History and English Student. Hailing from America, her favourite book is Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam.

Akshika Kandage

Video Team

My name is Akshika and I, like most people I meet in St Andrews, am an IR student. I am the president of Action For Muona and the Education officer for the BAME students Network. Some of my hobbies include reading, cooking/baking, writing and scrolling through Instagram. I love learning new things and I’m really excited to join Polis’s video team!

Amberly Ying

Staff Writer

Amberly is a first year Social Anthropology student from Hong Kong. She is particularly invested in the detrimental effects of climate change on developing communities and may sometimes be found procrastinating her work by reading anything written by Yuval Noah Harari or explaining what an anthropology degree actually is.

Ana Fati

Staff Writer

Ana is a fourth year English and Spanish student from Bucharest. The ability to immerse herself in intimate confessions, to peak into others creative trails and their unapologetic self-reflections makes autobiography her favorite genre. When she is not capturing the world through the lens of her film camera or writing poetry with her 6B pencil, Ana can be seen dancing to pretty much everything with a beat, acting on stage and trying to stand on a surfboard.

Angella Marzola

Staff Writer

My name is Angella, and I’m in my third year studying English, Spanish and Italian. The great thing about Polis is that you can write an article about anything at all - something you’re interested in or something you want to learn more about - and then share this knowledge with everyone! So expect some articles about pretty random topics - you learn something new every day!

Anna Mitchell

Staff Writer

Anna is a third year Computer Science and Philosophy student from Aberdeen. She is particularly interested in data ethics. When she is not reading data protection legislation, she can be found listening to true crime or in the North Sea.

Aung Hein Htet (Austin)

Staff Writer

Austin is a Myanmar-born Chinese in his first year studying Psychology. A hopeless romantic and daydreamer, Austin spends most of his free time watching Asian dramas (mostly Korean, Chinese and Thai) and crafting new chapters for his Wattpad novels. His favourite book at the moment is Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie.

Belle Andrews

Staff Writer

Belle is a Master’s student in Legal and Constitutional Studies, originally from Connecticut. During her undergraduate career at Swarthmore College she studied Political Science and Peace Conflict Studies. When she's not in the classroom or library, you’ll probably find her outside hiking or running. However, on rainy days, she does enjoy a good book; her favorite being The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien.

Calum Stewart

Staff Writer

Calum is a third year English and Modern History student from the tiny village of Glassford. Fascinated by national identity in politics, he devours Scottish literature, his favourite book being Lanark by Alasdair Gray. When not listening to comedy on Radio 4, watching period dramas or Drag Race UK, Calum can either be found having a panic attack in the library, or buying yoghurt from the Spar.

Catherine Mullner

Staff Writer

Catherine is a second year Comparative Literature and English student from Southern California. When she’s not at East Sands staring into the void of Poseidon’s deep and loving gaze, she can be found panic catching up on her 6 year old Duolingo account, only to forget it once more. Her favourite book is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.

Charles Hill

Staff Writer

Charles is a second year French and international relations student from London. An unashamed music geek, when not playing the guitar to procrastinate from doing anything useful, he can be found trying to justify a French degree to friends and family. His favourite book is On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

Clara Tipper

Staff Writer

My name is Clara, I’m a history student from Edinburgh. My interests include global and conceptual history, and postcolonial theory. When not promoting my blog on LinkedIn, you’ll find me on the sofa with my two spaniels, or having a dinner parties with my flatmates.

Dasha Krasnodembskaya

Staff Writer

Dasha is also going into her second year of studying French with International relations! She is from St Petersburg, Russia but has also lived in the US and UK! Her interests extend into music, travelling, debating, literature and discovering new things that catch her attention!

Emily Baxter

Staff Writer

Emily is a 3rd year English Lit and Philosophy student from Kirkcaldy. If you have a musical instrument, Emily will (try) to play it. Her other hobbies include collecting vinyl, and thinking way too much about way too little.

Emma McKeown

Staff Writer

Emma is a second year student studying English Literature. Her hobbies include spending all of her money on (second hand) books and yet continuing to re-read her five favourite novels. When she's not doing this she likes to make sure everyone knows she is vegan and believes all humans are lactose intolerant so look out for nearly all of her articles being about climate change and sustainability.

Ennio Pecaver

Staff Writer

Ennio is a 3rd year Biochemistry student from Croatia. He loves drumming, basketball, and nerdy stuff like sci-fi and D&D. He is happy to talk your ear off about things you don't really care about, such as pretentious food, pretentious details about the aforementioned hobbies, and pretentious music bands you haven't (nor should've) heard about.

Eva Neill

Staff Writer

Eva is a first year Geography student from Glasgow. She enjoys reading, being outdoors (especially when there’s water or snow involved) and rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You can usually find her curating her bucket hat collection.

Eve McDonald

Staff Writer

Freddy Simonnet-Lefevre

Staff Writer

Freddy is a first year Economics student who is a native Scot, a rare breed at St Andrews. Because of this he's likely to be one of the few people here more interested in the careers of superstars such as Jackie Baillie and Kate Forbes as opposed to AOC and Julia Ardern. Despite this, don't be surprised if he pontificates on International Relations too, as a competitive debater nothing he lacks expertise in escapes his grasp.

Giulia Colangeli

Staff Writer

I'm a final year italian student, I lived for 20 years by the sea but I've always been in love with the wilderness. I took a scientific high school, learned Ancient Greek by myself and then chose Classics: my dream now is to build my own hut and live in the mountains with my goats. Basically an hermit always changing pathways.

Grace Vollers

Staff Writer

Grace is a third-year Arabic and International Relations student from the US (current state residency pending). If you happen to hear her on the street, she is probably discussing the many health benefits of kombucha or the systemic racism found within the domestic and foreign policy of the United States.

Hagar Manssour

Video Team

Hagar is a second-year International Relations student born in Cairo and raised in Dundee. She’ll often have a cup of tea in her hand, stumbling across a strange rabbit-hole on the internet or reading.

Harris Hutchison

Staff Writer

Harris is a third year Computer Science student, and proud native of Kirkcaldy. When not doing 14 hour lab sessions trying desperately to get his code to work, he can be found in the STAR studio, writing about music, or thinking about vegetables!

Hitanshi Badani

Staff Writer

Hitanshi (she/her) is a first year student of International Relations and Psychology from Mumbai, India. Outside of the classroom, she enjoys light readings and (pseudo intellectual) conversations about most social sciences. She is also deeply passionate about debate, hot chocolate, Parks and Recreations and most importantly, Benedict Cumberbatch.

Ines Renee

Staff Writer

Ines is a third year English Literature student from New York. She is a self-professed film geek and spends too much time on Letterboxd. She can usually be found drinking black iced coffee even in freezing weather. Ines’ favorite book is “The Virgin Suicides” by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Jake Steiner

Staff Writer

Jake is a third-year International Relations and Econ student from Honolulu, and his academic interests focus on Asia-Pacific security, with particular emphasis on China, Japan, and ASEAN. He is a master at reading and walking at the same time, which he uses to cram just *one more* source in his IR essays. If you see Jake in the wild, do not approach as he is probably heavily caffeinated.

James Rowland

Staff Writer

James is from Livingston and is currently pursuing his second degree at St Andrews, an MSc in English Language Teaching (yes, you can do that here, who knew?) with the hope of one day being useful. His favourite book is Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Between the Woods and the Water.

Jennifer Geminiani

Staff Writer

Jen is a Terrorism and Political Violence MLitt Student who is extremely passionate about news. This is hardly a surprise given that she completed her undergraduate studies in Journalism and Communications (shoutout to Cardiff Uni). Now she misses the welsh capital dearly (which probably comes more as a surprise). Jenny is originally from Italy and is an absolute culinary regarding food. Her infamous “International School” accent often makes people wrongly assume that she’s from the US, but here’s a little secret: she has actually never even been there. In other respects Jennifer will be one of the most stereotypical Italians you’ll ever meet: she thinks she talks normally but shes actually screaming, she wildly gesticulates with her hands in the air while she is speaking and has a heart filled with delicious pasta and good chocolate.

Jasmine Whittaker

Staff Writer

Jasmine is a second year English student from Connecticut. When she’s not writing her next short story, she enjoys long walks with her dog and peach ice cream. Her favourite book: The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Jessica Hepler

Staff Writer

Jess is a second-year student from the US studying Arabic and Persian with International Relations. She is particularly interested in American foreign policy towards the Middle East and Central Asia. Her favorite book: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Laura Bennie

Staff Writer

Laura is a first year International Relations student from Oxford. Her passion is US politics and diplomacy. As she is disappointed by the current field of real politicians, her role models are television's C.J. Cregg and Leslie Knope.

Lia Da Giau

Staff Writer

Lia is a first year Sustainable Development student with a really strong Italian accent. As lockdown gave her more free time than she needed, she started learning Spanish. When not practicing her newly acquired language skills, she spends her time among short books, long walks and confusing thoughts on what “development” actually is.

Lucia Guercio

Staff Writer

Lucia is a third year Art History student, from Salerno, Italy. Her favourite book is The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges!

Maanvi Chawla

Staff Writer

Maanvi is a first year International Relations student from Mumbai, India. She loves crime shows and mystery novels. She is always up for a discussion on history and politics especially if it’s related to India. However, always approach her only after she’s had her morning coffee!

Marina Damji

Staff Writer

Marina is a first year studying International Relations, English, and Classical Studies from Manchester. Her primary interests include turtlenecks, Shakespeare, and the penal system of England and Wales. She can usually be found thinking about how much she wants to read (but not actually reading) and maintaining a slight Diet Coke addiction. Her favourite novel is Jane Eyre.

Nigel Mika

Staff Writer

Nigel is a first year Philosophy and Maths student from Michigan, in the United States. If you cannot find him holed up in a library reading he is probably out on a run or backpacking outdoors (or honestly anything outdoors.) Nigel has a passion for philosophy of language as well as formal logic. Don't be afraid to drop him a line on facebook if he has said something you would like further elucidation on (the name is at the top of the profile.)

Olivia Di Mascio

Staff Writer

Olivia is a first year Economics and Maths student. Wearing a hat has become a personality trait, as is fantasising about starting a new life in Brazil. Hobbies include stealing food and going on walks in the dark.

Rory McNeight

Staff Writer

Rory is a second year Film Studies and Psychology student from Northern Ireland. When not extolling the virtues of Chicken Run, he’s probably procrastinating - often by eating (ice cream) or lamenting his indecisive nature.

Rowan Wishart

Staff Writer

Rowan is a recent English Grad. Her hobbies include painting your profile picture for practice and never showing you the results. She loves reading too much into social interactions and overthinking the wider implications of reading from a kindle.

Sheen Sony

Staff Writer

Sheen is a second year Psychology and Economics student at the University of St. Andrews, from Jammu and Kashmir, India. She is passionate about poetry, the mythologies and beliefs of different religions, deep conversations and charcoal paintings. She finds comfort in music with meaningful lyrics and good (spicy!) food. She believes she is half a soul building herself whole :)

Teia Swan

Staff Writer

Teia is a third year International Relations student from Utah. Her academic interests include feminist and postcolonial studies, and her recreational interests include playing with cats (pictured).

Valentina Calvi

Staff Writer

Valentina is a master's student in International Development from Italy. You'll find her ranting about the latest podcast she's listened to, migration and the fashion industry with a steaming thermos of tea on hand.