Dear readers,
With summer now officially over, the Christmas lights coming back up in Maastricht and the temperatures getting frigid again I would like to welcome you to a new year with the Maastricht Diplomat!
We, the board of the MD, started out our year at the very beginning with a long and arduous selection process to pick out the current team members and organise the year ahead. Thank you to everyone who sent in their application, we read through them all and in the end had to make a difficult choice on who we accept within the possible limits of our oversight. But in the end we managed and I can say I am quite happy to go forward with the team we have now, with each member offering something interesting and new, with each one bringing a different type of insight and special interest.
If we were to summarise our plan for this year in one word it would be: diversification. Diversification both in topics and approaches. With the new members we have people that are passionate and eager to write about topics we have barely covered in the years before. Expect new pieces about synthetic biology, rural exodus but also how new technologies may impact the global landscape. We have articles in preparation covering the numerous elections going on at the moment and that are still about to happen in the near future. Difficult to tell stories about oppression are upcoming while some writers prefer to focus and write about art in relation to activism. Even more pieces about what is happening in and around Maastricht are incoming so keep a wary look out to our socials and websites to follow all of these! (Hint: we are also on LinkedIn now)
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All these stories will be told through various media and approaches: we are pushing for more video content and reportages to bring stories to another level and add a new dimension to our reporting. Of course the podcast, an indispensable part of the Maastricht Diplomat for the past few years, is sure to make a great comeback with several pieces already in planning, kicking everything off with a series on the democratic elections happening in the world soon and now. So whatever your preference of information gathering is, we have you covered!
Furthermore, a fundamental tenet of this year is collaboration. We are trying to push more collaboration with the other UNSA committees to showcase the breadth that is there but also are planning to work with the various (charitable) student associations in Maastricht that each are passionate about their topic and can surely teach us and you a lot about their domain of predilection. So stay on the watch out for our reporters in the associative circles near you.
For one of those collaborations we will be joining forces with the team of the Blue & Yellow, the blog of the European Careers Association, to keep you up to date on everything concerning the upcoming European Parliament Elections, from explainers on how they work to insights into the youth turnout in these elections.
Finally, a small part of our journal that sunk a little into the background last year is the Corner Café, a place for our writers to explore the more cultural side of their writing and share their passion about pop culture pieces and elements. Here they will be able to rant about their favourite book, dissect their favourite film or even just take you on the journey on how they like to digest their favourite piece of music.
This year announces itself to be a great one. A year where we are aiming to share new and unsung stories with you and portray the tales of things that maybe have not been told enough. A year where we want to make you travel to far away places and make you discover a more creative and less serious side of journalism and writing.
And if you have anything you think we should cover, a point of critique you want to address to us or maybe you are or know a person with a great story to tell, don’t hesitate to write us an e-mail: journal@myunsa.org . Or reach out to us on our socials. We’re always eager to read what you have to say.
Mercure Libbrecht Gourdet,
Head and editor-in-chief of the Maastricht Diplomat 2023 / 2024
