Events

Samantha Likonde, Jaime Llorente Prada and Mukai Chigumba, representing the EUSA Liberation Officers of the academic term 2021-22 joined us for our latest ConveRACEions seminar series of 2022, talking about “Intersectional Student Activism: How to show support between communities."

This talk focused on the importance of student activism and maintaining intersectional approaches within student movements. The speakers discussed the idea of a checklist to ensure collaboration between different movements, which in turn aimed to ensure further support and reach of their initiatives. Finally, the talk addressed how the university, staff and union can work with students and student societies to help everyone further their goals. This session was not recorded.  

About the Liberation Officers of the academic year 2021/22:

Samantha Likonde, BAME Liberation Officer (2021/22) (She/Her): Samantha is a law student who enjoys participating in societies and organizations within the university such as being the BAME liberation officer, the vice president of the African & Caribbean society and also being a co-founder and director of the BlackED Movement. Furthermore, she has a keen interest in working with marginalized communities and working to empower them. She has worked also with the Saheliya charity as the lead project co-ordinator for their young saheliya division which works with young women aged between 12-25, as well as volunteering with the Unity centre, which offers practical support and advice to asylum seekers and refugees. 

Jaime Llorente Prada, Trans and Non-Binary Liberation Officer (2021/22) (They/Them): Jaime held the role of Trans and Non-Binary Liberation Officer in the academic year 2021/22 and then moved into the role of LGBT+ Liberation Officer in the academic year 2022/23 at the University of Edinburgh. They are a queer activist and a passionate voice within the fight for ethnic minorities' rights in the university. Their work focuses on intersectionality and policymaking, which has made possible the inclusion of trans and non-binary identities into university policies. 

Mukai Chigumba, Women’s Officer (2021/22) (She/Her): Mukai is a law student and the Women's Officer in the academic year 2021/22. As women's officer she has been tackling gender based violence and sexual assault on campus. Mukai has done work promotion anti racism through her founding and directing the Black ED Movement. Mukai has also been President of the African Caribbean Society where she has worked on various initiatives such as Caribbean Week. 

Learn more about EUSA’s current liberation officers here

Dr Ibtihal Ramadan’s talk discussed findings from her research undertaken at the University of Edinburgh, along with a paper that is currently under review. The talk focused on the associations between Islamophobia and racism, drawing from the experiences of Muslim academics who are trying to push boundaries in order to break negative stereotypes and to challenge normative ideas of Muslim academics in British academia. Dr Ramadan’s talk drew from the conceptual framework of critical race theory.  

While she was completing a research fellowship at Moray House School of Education here at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Ibtihal Ramadan examined the experiences of Muslim academics working in the Arts, Humanities and Social Science disciplines at UK universities. 

Read her publication: When faith intersects with gender: the challenges and successes in the experiences of Muslim women academics 

In this talk, Rayya shared her experience of having a complex national and cultural heritage and how she has been able to understand and navigate the different identities she inhabits. Drawing on the portrayal of Arabs by British colonial ’scholars’ as well as contemporary events in Israel/Palestine, she explored how colonisation and colonially are forces that have shaped both the history and present of the region. Through this journey, she talked about the tensions of being a supporter of Palestinian rights with the anti-racist commitment she holds. This has been particularly challenged in recent time with the escalation of oppression, dispossession, and erasure of East Jerusalem, particularly Silwan, where Rayya’s father was born and the family have lived for centuries.  

Rayya Ghul is the academic lead for the Edinburgh Teaching Award. She is the child of two displaced persons with a Palestinian father and Silesian mother and she grew up in Scotland.  

This talk was not recorded. If you would like further information, please contact the ConveRACEions team at ConveRACEions@ed.ac.uk  

This October, ConveRACEions celebrated Black History Month!  

Our guest speaker for Black History Month and ConveRACEions’ first anniversary was Aisha Janki Akinola who talked to us about her engagement for minority students' welfare and BlackED's journey in getting the 40 George Square renamed. This month's event included a live interview followed by an open Q&A session.  

Aisha is the current Vice President Welfare of the Edinburgh University Students’ Association. She studied her A levels at an all girls school in Ghana which seeks to empower more young girls from across Africa to enter into STEM fields. Having graduated from the school with a fully funded scholarship to study her dream course; Architecture at Edinburgh University, she continues to engage in conversations around equality, diversity and inclusion. She recently co founded the BlackED movement; an organisation pushing for a truly anti-racist culture at Edinburgh university alongside 6 other ambitious black women. 

Please note, this session was not recorded. 

In this talk, Dr Ashlee Christoffersen discusses different ways of applying Black feminist theory of intersectionality - that inequalities are mutually constituting and ultimately indivisible from one another - in different fields: empirical research, equality policy and ‘practice’ (particularly the work of third sector organisations). Her talk draws links between these fields since operationalising intersectionality requires work within and across these areas - and illustrates this through thinking about how intersectionality can be applied to considering the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on her research into understandings and uses of intersectionality, this talk critically considers both its misuses and possibilities. 

If you would like to access a copy of the slides from Dr Ashlee Christoffersen’s presentation from this event, please email the ConveRACEions team at: converaceions@ed.ac.uk  

What enables and what impedes? Too often, action becomes compromised as people fear getting the terminology wrong and become side-tracked with what is the right term to use to describe people. There are also debates about whether concepts like white supremacy or white privilege are used too glibly thereby diminishing important discussions about racism and power. Some would argue that identity politics serve the purpose of distracting from the real issues of systemic discrimination.  How important are such debates and how do we ensure pro-action continues as we debate, learn and grow. 

Professor Rowena Arshad (CBE, FEIS) is Chair in Multicultural and Anti-Racist Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland (CERES) Moray House School of Education and Sport at the University of Edinburgh. She is well-known as a race and equality scholar and campaigner.  

If you would like to access the recording of Professor Rowena Arshad’s presentation from this event, please email the ConveRACEions team at: converaceions@ed.ac.uk  

Drawing from feminist and critical race theories, this conversation unfolds the experiences of two Yellow migrant women living and working in the U.K. in times of COVID-19. Started with a brief explanation of what it means to be Yellow, we share our experiences of being perceived as hysterical and our fear of being ridiculed and harassed in the beginning of the outbreak. The conversation further examines the racialized discourse surrounding face-covering and anti-Asian racism in both the private and the public spheres. We then conclude by discussing our transformation in times of crisis. We also emphasize the importance of (re)claiming our Yellowness and link such an empowering act to standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Read their publication: Critical conversations: being Yellow women in the time of COVID-19

Now that “decolonising the curriculum” has firmly entered university management speak, it risks being emptied of the history and politics that ground this endeavour. This workshop will be based on the learnings from a research project on “decolonising the business school curriculum” that seeks to return to anti-colonial and decolonial thinking – from which calls to decolonise emerge – to interrogate what can be learned, and must be remembered, in relation to endeavours around curricular transformation. 

Watch ConveRACEions with rashné limki and colleagues (Media Hopper video)

My aim with this talk is to critique the cultural calculus informing recent events in the United States that involve race, insurrection, and aberrant police behaviour. I explore why the voices of black people, which could have predicted some aspects of what has happened, are often not listened to by mainstream white America. This conundrum, I argue, is entangled in a historically racialized culture that elevates ‘WP’ — a nickname growing in popularity by African Americans for identifying any hint of ‘white privilege’ — as well as emphasizes what I am calling ‘BB,’ an acronym for ‘black bias.’ 

Barbara is an African American Ph.D. student at the University of Edinburgh, with extensive activism in social justice issues. She has led a large non-profit social services agency in northern California.

Watch ConveRACEions with Barbara Becnel (Media Hopper video)