KULMUN 2018 CONFERENCE
The KULMUN Student Association can proudly announce that its yearly MUN Conference will indeed return for an 8th edition in 2018. KULMUN 2018 is set to take place from March 6 to 10 in the city of Leuven, Belgium. A MUN or Model United Nations Conference is an educational activity in which organs of the United Nations but also other international organisations are simulated. In a simulation, the participants, or delegates, each represent a country whose policy and interests they aim to defend during negotiations concerning an international issue. The topics debated are usually present-day topics, such as the situation in Syria or the state of the European economy.
Simulations of this kind are held throughout the world, therefore KULMUN is very proud to be the host of its own conference and that already for more than 7 years. While our first conference in 2011 solely accommodated around 50 Belgian MUN enthuasiasts it has grown into a five day lasting one which hosted over 150 delegates from more than 20 countries in 2017.
We are very much looking forward to welcome you to Leuven for a sure to be memorable week!
KULMUN 2018 THEME
After careful deliberation our SG & DSG have decided upon the following theme for the KULMUN 2018 Conference:
“Refocus: Changing the scene of international politics”.
No one can deny that the last few years have been marked by significant modifications in the area of international relations. Power balances have evolved, shifted or been broken, leading to a profoundly different world compared to the one of just a decade ago. Moreover new actors and new objectives have emerged and citizens have embraced the new means of communication, once again helping to remind us that the future is never set in stone.
By adopting this theme KULMUN 2018 intends to fully exploit the brittleness of international politics: What makes this institution so predominant and the other so irrelevant? Why do we never (sufficiently) hear anything about that part of the world? After all, today’s highlight could just have been worth a small paragraph on page 22 if some circumstances would have been slightly different. What are those circumstances? These are the questions that will dominate the KULMUN 2018 Conference.
The motivations of having the theme “Refocus: Changing the scene of international politics” are multiple: It will help us discover the role of underexposed international organs and aid us to understand and perhaps appreciate their contributions to global society. The debated topics will also focus on subjects that do not appear on a regular manner on our mainstream media and/or clouded in a veil of secrecy.
On a more practical way, KULMUN 2018 aims to present committees and topics that have not yet been the subject of many MUN simulations. This should confront chairs & delegates alike with situations they have not had the pleasure yet to debate and lobby about.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE WELCOME LETTER BY OUR SG & DSG
Secretary-General:
Hannah Bergmann
Hannah Bergmann’s interest for international politics became a full-grown passion when she first participated in BerlinMUN four years ago as a delegate. The MUN-characteristic mix of motivated and inspiring people, very serious debating and an agenda of highly pressing issues combined with a packed social programme caught her immediately. Since then, Hannah took part in several conferences in the UK, Ireland, Poland, Belgium and Germany as a delegate and chair. She has also been part of the organising team of BerlinMUN for the past three years. When not MUNing, Hannah is studying history, sociology and political sciences at Humboldt-University Berlin and loves to travel, cook and visit music and film festivals.
Hannah could not be more honoured to serve as the Secretary-General for KULMUN 2018. While participating in the past three editions of KULMUN, both the city of Leuven as well as the wonderful KULMUN association have become a second MUN-home to her. To keep up the high academic standard and to ensure that this KULMUN will be as rich and diverse in content as its last editions is a challenge Hannah is pleased to accept. She cannot wait to return to Leuven and is, together with the marvellous Xhilda Vocaj, determined to make KULMUN 2018 an unforgettable and truly rewarding experience for everyone.
Deputy Secretary-General:
Xhilda Vocaj
Xhilda Vocaj is an Albanian student living in Paris. After graduating in international and European law from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, she has obtained two master’s degrees, one from the same university in international business law and the other in international and European litigation from the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense. She has been part of the Albanian delegation to UNESCO during two consecutive sessions of the Executive Board and has accomplished an 8-month internship in a French law firm. She is currently preparing for the Paris bar exam.
After an excellent experience as a chair in KULMUN 2017, she is looking forward to coming back to Leuven and one of her favourite conferences, this time serving as Deputy Secretary General.