In a special collaboration with the Global Health Club, the Model United Nations Club hosted its monthly event “News and Brews” on Friday, March 31. Students, faculty, and community members gathered at Pulpit Rock Brewery to discuss current political issues while eating pizza, and for those over 21, drinking locally crafted beer. 

After a quick chat between Assistant Professor of Political Science Orçun Selçuk and the board of the Global Health Club, three tables were set up: one for the pizza, one for global health related discussions, and another for all other current political talk. Selçuk, who also is the faculty advisor of the Model United Nations Club, explained the concept to all attendees.

 “The theme is recent global news, this time with a global health corporation,” Selçuk said. “It is supposed to be more informal, though, and not just one person talking.” 

 President of the Global Health Club Linnea Johnson Nordqvist (‘24), agreed that “News and Brews” is supposed to be a fun event. Johnson Nordqvist expanded on the reason for the collaboration. 

“I’m in the Policy and System track of Global Health, so I have to take quite a few Political Science courses,” Johnson Nordqvist said. “I had a class with Orçun last semester and learned that everything is inherently political.” 

From there, the idea to talk about global health issues from a political perspective was born. Johnson Nordqvist further elaborated on the topics that interest her. 

“Health equity is a big issue. The pandemic exposed a health inequity that was priorly only known to experts,” Johnson Nordgvist said. “The politicization of Covid then also shaped the pandemic and in my view it is hard to find a positive effect there.”  

President of the Model United Nations Club Hannah Hoffmann (‘23), emphasized the importance of having these monthly meetings.

 “News and Brews is primarily fun for people who like to talk about politics and current events, but it’s also important from a standpoint of being able to hear and discuss different ideas,” Hoffmann said. “It’s good to not live in an echo chamber and events like this facilitate an opportunity for feedback.”

At the Global Health table, one topic was transgender rights and LGBTQIA+ community members ‘ struggle to find accessible healthcare. Students described this system as “selective healthcare”. The discussion then moved to capitalism as an issue in providing universal healthcare around the world. Though many agreed that health care is more accessible in many other places in the world, it was also pointed out that many of the prime examples of universal healthcare have issues as well.

At the Current Politics Table, Dr. Steinar Bryn, from the Nansen Academy’s Nansen Dialogue program,  joined in to talk about Donald Trump, Israel, Palestine, and Honduras’ recent decision to move its embassy from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China. Hoffmann elaborated on this issue. 

“We talked a lot about the implications of the Trump indictment, which is something that will spur another outburst of political violence in our country,” Hoffmann said. “Additionally, the legal aspects of the case are quite interesting.”