A Diverse Learning Space to Allow Growth and Understanding
On May 12and 13I attended two conferences, the first conference was “Working towards an anti-racist university”, whilst the second, “Power and contestations in global worlds, identities, conflicts, and developmental challenges” was led by DEN. I enjoyed both conferences as the speakers spoke of engaging and interesting topics and held conversations which should be discussed globally. The conferences enabled a place to network with people both internal and external to the university and made me think about the near future and what I would like my dissertation topic to be about.
My personal role in both events was to do henna on those that attended, I really enjoyed this as it allows me to get to know everyone on a personal level whilst doing their henna. The conference has enabled me to grow my social media page and create content for my small business as well as to network with individuals that I had met for the first time; all this has grown my confidence further. I also enjoyed being creative in making a short video for the DEN conference. Many of the speeches were powerful and well presented, as people wanted to speak up about certain issues and raise concerns very confidently. I was able to enjoy the presentations whilst working with others, and it was an amazing experience which I would recommend to others.
Additionally, I really enjoyed the perspectives not only from the internal students of Westminster University but those of international students too from Peru, and Vietnam. It was interesting to see the different types of research presented and the background of why they chose to present their topic. I was able to learn a lot of things that I wouldn’t have even looked into if it wasn’t raised at the conferences, and I am open to research more on the topics mentioned as they were very interesting. This created a diverse learning space to allow growth and understanding, such as the topic of the difference between being non-racist and anti-racist and how institutions like universities should act when people are facing discrimination. It was really powerful to see a lot of the speakers had specifically mentioned their own experiences that they faced as these were linked to their topics. Overall, both the conferences were amazing, and I hope to see more events like these. It also allowed students of the university from all years to get to know one another on a personal level which makes the university experience more engaging and enjoyable.
Tahmina Islam, BA (Hons), Arabic and International Relations