This week the Pol IR team joined more than 300 educators around the UK who pledged to teach about the Sustainable Development Goals as part of the third annual #SDGTeachIN.

On Monday, second years in Dr Susan Kenyon’s Politics of Transport class examined the causes of transport-related social exclusion. The issues debated in class related to SDG 1 No Poverty, SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing, SDG 5 Gender Equality, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities and SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.

On Tuesday, first year students in Dr Laura Cashman’s Contemporary Global Politics class focused on SDG 2 Zero Hunger for the whole session. They examined the political and ecological challenges to ensuring food security for all. The class debated whether the goal was realistic and what kinds of structural changes would be required to see success in the next ten years.

Also on Tuesday, our third year Radical Political Thought module had a session led by Professor David Bates and Tom Sharkey on the theme “Refusing Capitalism: art, politics and resistance”. This was linked to SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production and SDG 16 Peace and Justice and featured research from their work linked to their Tate Exchange project.  

Finally, tomorrow, Friday, our third-year module Political Ideologies in Action will focus on Social Ecology. Led again by Tom Sharkey, this is an ideal theme to approach the SDGs from a critical angle. It encompasses almost all the SDGs in a holistic manner using the ideas of Murray Bookchin to develop a different approach to resolve the ecological and political challenges facing our world.