Student wins Bloomsbury seat on Camden Council

A SOAS student has won a seat in the local Camden elections, held earlier this month.

Politics undergraduate student Lilac Carr, secured 846 votes in the Bloomsbury Ward to represent Green Party in the constituency of Camden. She also stood amongst 14 candidates in the Bloomsbury Ward.

I will work hard to ensure that the Council represents and supports everyone who lives, studies or works in Bloomsbury.

Speaking on becoming an elected councillor, Lilac said: 

“I’m thrilled and grateful to be elected to represent Bloomsbury, the ward in which I live and have studied for three years now. I decided to run for election because I wanted to give back to the local community which I am part of, and I am excited to get started on that work now as councillor. Too often, the needs of students and university staff are ignored by local councils, either because their electoral impact is dismissed or because they cannot afford to live in the wards they work, study, and spend most of their time. 

“As an elected student on Camden Council, I will work hard to ensure that our voices and needs are not ignored, and that the Council represents and supports everyone who lives, studies or works in Bloomsbury.”

Dr Ross Mittiga, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics & International Studies and Lilac's thesis advisor, added: "Karl Marx once complained that philosophers had only interpreted the world, when the point was to change it. Lilac Carr was evidently persuaded. 

"One of the most acute and hard-working students I have taught at SOAS — an institution that has long treated political education as a prelude to engagement with the world rather than a means of retreating from it — her election is a real gain for Camden."

The study of Politics at SOAS introduces the core subjects of political theory, comparative politics, political economy, and international relations, which is applied to the analysis of real-world political situations.