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<\/p>\nAsk three of the editors of UConn\u2019s Undergraduate Political Review to describe what it\u2019s like to talk about politics today and they use the same single word.<\/p>\n
Messy.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s no other way for this trio to describe the state of political discussions today.<\/p>\n
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What they add though after a short pause is that their coursework and involvement in the Undergraduate Political Review (UPR)<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are smarter and more capable people than us analyzing these issues,\u201d Alessandro Portolano \u201925 (CLAS) says, \u201cand engaging with their work helps us gain some appreciation, some humility if you will. That\u2019s unique and probably needed in today\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n Portolano, a graduating senior who\u2019s one of UPR\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cMy interest in politics and history has always been there,\u201d he says, attributing that to his father. \u201cBedtime stories as a kid were about the Roman empire. Julius Caesar was as familiar to me as Little Red Riding Hood.\u201d<\/p>\n So, the hours he spends each week researching and writing his own UPR stories in addition to editing pieces by other authors aren\u2019t particularly arduous.<\/p>\n Their eventual publication is just \u201can output of what you\u2019re already engaging with and what you\u2019re doing already,\u201d he says. \u201cYou read the news. You think about these things. It\u2019s just a way to formally express it.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201925 (CLAS), the editor-in-chief who\u2019s graduating a year early in May with a degree in political science and an individualized major in law and society.<\/p>\n Oksan Bayulgen and Evan Perkoski, both political science professors, serve as advisors, and their help \u2013 along with the rest of the department – is invaluable, she adds.<\/p>\n Founded in 2015, the review is celebrating its 10th anniversary with its 20th issue, which was released online this week<\/a>; print copies will be available by the end of the semester.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to engage in academics outside of your classes, especially for people who aren\u2019t political science majors but are still interested in politics,\u201d Cossette says. \u201cPeople think this is just a political science organization because it\u2019s run through the department<\/a>, but we are open to anyone in any major or field, as long as they\u2019re an undergraduate student.\u201d<\/p>\n Take, for example, Yana Tartakovskiy \u201925 (BUS) who joined UPR in the fall and is an associate editor this semester. She\u2019s a graduating health care management major and wanted to look closer at health care policy than her classes allowed.<\/p>\n Tartakovskiy\u2019s first piece considered how the right to an abortion is being litigated in the courts, while this semester she\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n These are topics she\u2019d researched in the past but hadn\u2019t published for public consumption, she says. UPR gave her that venue.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to lie, I\u2019m not a huge politics fan,\u201d Tartakovskiy admits. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n But she continues of UPR, \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n In the fall 2024 edition, \u201cThe Politics of Influence: Global Trends & Local Realities,\u201d<\/a> pieces ranging from \u201cThe Taylor Swift Effect: Do Celebrity Endorsements Matter in Political Campaigns\u201d to \u201cThe State of Medicaid in Connecticut\u201d and \u201cThe Politics of Loneliness: Restoring Social Capital Amidst Social Impoverishment\u201d kept editors busy.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 matching editors and writers at the outset and assembling the final product at the end.<\/p>\n With only three all-staff meetings a semester, most work is done independently.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving a UPR gives students an outlet to look at issues more deeply than they can in an introductory class,\u201d Portolano says, explaining he often seeks out professors with expertise in certain areas and schedules office hours with them \u2013 just to chat. \u201cMaking those relationships, developing your political language, and engaging with complex ideas in a way that is accessible to a general audience are important skills.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/upr-logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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