Ask three of the editors of UConn’s Undergraduate Political Review to describe what it’s like to talk about politics today and they use the same single word.
Messy.
As much as they study political science, listen to podcasts about it, talk with professors and friends about it, write about it, at times seemingly live and breathe it, there’s no other way for this trio to describe the state of political discussions today.
What they add though after a short pause is that their coursework and involvement in the Undergraduate Political Review (UPR) has taught them to see both sides of issues, maybe even land on the middle ground when right debates left, and red and blue have at it.
“There are smarter and more capable people than us analyzing these issues,” Alessandro Portolano ’25 (CLAS) says, “and engaging with their work helps us gain some appreciation, some humility if you will. That’s unique and probably needed in today’s world.”
Portolano, a graduating senior who’s one of UPR’s seven associate editors, says he joined the review in fall 2023 when he was looking for a way to explore topics outside his history major, things he finds personally interesting like international relations, climate and conflict, and digital authoritarianism.
“My interest in politics and history has always been there,” he says, attributing that to his father. “Bedtime stories as a kid were about the Roman empire. Julius Caesar was as familiar to me as Little Red Riding Hood.”
So, the hours he spends each week researching and writing his own UPR stories in addition to editing pieces by other authors aren’t particularly arduous.
Their eventual publication is just “an output of what you’re already engaging with and what you’re doing already,” he says. “You read the news. You think about these things. It’s just a way to formally express it.”
UPR employs the talents of between 10 and 15 student writers and a handful of student editors twice a year to put out an edition each semester, explains Makenzie Cossette ’25 (CLAS), the editor-in-chief who’s graduating a year early in May with a degree in political science and an individualized major in law and society.
Oksan Bayulgen and Evan Perkoski, both political science professors, serve as advisors, and their help – along with the rest of the department – is invaluable, she adds.
Founded in 2015, the review is celebrating its 10th anniversary with its 20th issue, which was released online this week; print copies will be available by the end of the semester.
“It’s a great opportunity to engage in academics outside of your classes, especially for people who aren’t political science majors but are still interested in politics,” Cossette says. “People think this is just a political science organization because it’s run through the department, but we are open to anyone in any major or field, as long as they’re an undergraduate student.”
Take, for example, Yana Tartakovskiy ’25 (BUS) who joined UPR in the fall and is an associate editor this semester. She’s a graduating health care management major and wanted to look closer at health care policy than her classes allowed.
Tartakovskiy’s first piece considered how the right to an abortion is being litigated in the courts, while this semester she’s researched some of the arguments favoring reproductive rights, like First Amendment claims from women who practice Judaism who say their religion allows them the right to an abortion.
These are topics she’d researched in the past but hadn’t published for public consumption, she says. UPR gave her that venue.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m not a huge politics fan,” Tartakovskiy admits. “I come from a family who has a wide range of political views because my parents and grandparents immigrated from the Soviet Union. So, politics is always such a heavily debated subject, and I hate to insert myself in there.”
But she continues of UPR, “This organization gave me the pathway to not only focus on political issues but also see how they intertwine with things I am passionate about, which is health care, the health care system, and health care access for women.”
In the fall 2024 edition, “The Politics of Influence: Global Trends & Local Realities,” pieces ranging from “The Taylor Swift Effect: Do Celebrity Endorsements Matter in Political Campaigns” to “The State of Medicaid in Connecticut” and “The Politics of Loneliness: Restoring Social Capital Amidst Social Impoverishment” kept editors busy.
While each associate editor works throughout the semester with a couple of writers to polish articles, Cossette says the editor-in-chief is busiest at the start and end of the semester – matching editors and writers at the outset and assembling the final product at the end.
With only three all-staff meetings a semester, most work is done independently.
“Having a UPR gives students an outlet to look at issues more deeply than they can in an introductory class,” Portolano says, explaining he often seeks out professors with expertise in certain areas and schedules office hours with them – just to chat. “Making those relationships, developing your political language, and engaging with complex ideas in a way that is accessible to a general audience are important skills.”
Tartakovskiy says she’s presenting in early May at George Washington University’s “The Student Journal Symposium for Literary and Research Publications,” and several others from UConn’s UPR participated in Fordham University’s similar event last semester.
Professional development is one of the club’s strengths, Cossette says.
A decade from now, Tartakovskiy says she hopes students from UConn, even elsewhere, will look at the scholarly research published in UPR as source material and cite it in their own research.
Cossette says she hopes future members will continue to improve the look and feel of the digital and print products, while Portolano says fostering a UPR community that includes current writers and alums is something to aim for.
“Having a formal publication at the university gives students an opportunity to have other people read and experience their ideas outside the traditional classroom format where only your professor is reading your work,” Cossette adds.
“These are some formative years,” Portolano notes. “Being able to engage seriously with these topics that in many ways are going to define our future, I think, is important.”
Cossette says she’s been interested in politics and the law since early high school when she took AP United States Government and Politics, so majoring in political science and participating in UConn’s Special Program in Law was a predicted path.
She says she tried what some might call “fun clubs” when she came to UConn, “and then I ended up joining a political club because that’s what I find fun.”
Tartakovskiy, who also is in the Special Program in Law, says that of the five or six organizations she’s been involved with during her time at UConn – including founding the student advocacy group Jewish on Campus UConn – UPR helped round her for the future.
“Politics is scrutinize-criticize and that’s for the better because nothing is perfect, and for things to change or get better, they have to be scrutinized,” she says. “It’s nice to challenge one person’s opinion of an issue and get them to see the other side of it.”
Even if it is messy.
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, UPR held an alumni panel in late March with alums from the first couple of editions talking about the review’s early days and where their careers have taken them. Watch the panel discussion here.
