[Featured Image: A typewriter with a piece of paper saying “Your text here…”. Source.]
New year, new us. As cliché as it may sound, it is true. The 2020/2021 academic year is bringing about several changes for The Clandestine and we are more than excited to get started! Most of the things we have planned are building off of the amazing groundwork laid by our former editor, Madison, while some of it is completely new.
Overall, our goal for the new year is to continue the project of creating a safe space for people of marginalised genders to share their experiences. Below is an extract from our ethos, which you can find in full here.
The Clandestine is named for every marginalised person that has been unwillingly sequestered to the private sphere. (…) We write this publication (…) for all those who fought for the right to exist in the public sphere and are only now finding their way into the mainstream. The Clandestine will be a platform to lift those who have been forced into secrecy, up into that which is public.
The Clandestine Ethos
We hope to continue the tradition of publishing pieces on the experiences, big or small, of marginalised genders, and bring attention to taboos which often surround these groups. We hope to continue to explore the diversity of intersectionality by bringing a continued focus to personal narratives. But most of all, we hope to create a resume building, educational, and fun project for non-males of all stages of their higher education in, or after, KCL to engage with.
We aim to do this, primarily through pieces submitted and written by contributors and regular contributors. However, as of this year, we have an increasing amount of ways in which you can get involved in the blog.
One of our new initiatives, is our column, Children of the Patriarchy, which will be run by our new column editor, Milou. Our intentions are for the column to run every Tuesday under the guidance of Milou, giving an insightful and witty take on being a young adult, raised in the patriarchy, trying to navigate all that such our world entails. The good, the bad, the breaking, the smashing, the setbacks, the victories. All of it. Our first column piece will be published on August 18th, so stay tuned.
We are also increasing our cooperation with the Women & Politics Society. Originally the blog was created as a part of the KCL W&P Society, and went under the name, Breaking the Glass Ceiling. We are still attached to the society, although we have obtained a more independent brand in the last few years. This year, we hope to reinstate parts of our collaborations, by linking a single piece of writing a month, to the current theme of the W&P society. The first of such surrounded Women in Activism and can be read here. The next will be in tone with the theme of Violence Against Women and will focus on domestic abuse. This will come out later this week.
Yet, not all is new. We are also bringing back the Current Event Reporters. While the format of these positions have been restructured, they maintain the overall goal: To report on current events (as hinted by the title). As of now we have found 4 incredibly talented women, with each of their area of expertise, on which they will be publishing monthly articles. You can read more here. Furthermore, this is an area which we will be increasingly interested in expanding so if you are interested in becoming a Current Events Reporter, stay tuned on our social media for a second round of applications, in end September.
We look immensely forward to this year, and cannot wait to share all our projects with you.
Best wishes,
Sarina Bastrup
Editor-in-Chief of The Clandestine