Hello everyone!
You might notice that this ‘Find Out Fridays’ post is either a bit late or early this week. I must admit, it’s a bit late 🙂 The first few weeks of the semester can be quite busy for us as well as you, but here we are. We hope you’re all settling in well and are enjoying living in this brilliant city called London.
I will try to post a ‘Find Out Fridays’ blog each Friday of the semester for the remainder of the term, containing upcoming events and opportunities through which you can explore various facets of this city, and the rest of the UK. Keep an eye out on Fridays – you might find something of interest to you (I hope)!
This week’s focus is on Diversity & Inclusion events which might be of interest to you in the coming month. Most of them will be free, but if something does have a fee and you would like to attend, come and speak to me about the possibility of getting that fee covered by the university. We very much want to encourage you to explore your passions and identities while you’re studying abroad, and we hope you take advantage of it. Please do share with me if you attend an event and you would like to talk about it privately and/or share your reflections publicly with your Syracuse London community. We welcome all voices, all perspectives – that’s what diversity means.
Here are some opportunities you might like to explore:
- I’d like to start with something that’s very easy to access, all you have to do is click on this link to view 15 portraits celebrating Britain’s diversity.
- This weekend (15-16 Sept) at the Design Museum – ‘Reconsidering Canon in a Diverse World‘ £5 student ticket.
- Liberty/Diaspora exhibition at Autograph highlighting “the global politics of black resistance” – running until 3 November, £FREE. You will also be able to visit another free exhibition upstairs by a Scottish photographic artist and educator, Arpita Shah, called ‘Purdah – The Sacred Cloth‘. The gallery is located in Shoreditch, which is a vibrant and dynamic area of London worth exploring.
- LGBTQ tour (£FREE) at the amazing Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum on Saturday, 29 September at 4pm. “Explore gender and sexual identities through a selection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer related objects in the V&A’s rich collections. Led by a V&A Volunteer Guide.” This tour takes place on the last Saturday of each month, so if you cannot make it in September, you will still have a chance to go in October/November. I went last month and loved it! I hope you can join me in September – let me know if you’re thinking of going.
- From this Saturday, 15 Sept at the Museum of London Docklands: ‘Slavery, Culture & Collecting‘ exhibition £FREE.
- Do also check out LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) public events throughout the semester – they’re usually high quality and £FREE. Here’s one for October: ‘Hard Truths: An Exhibition of Prize-Winning Photography from The New York Times‘ “The exhibit showcases the work of five outstanding New York Times photojournalists, who have taken great risks capturing events and their effects on people around the world. The photographs bear witness to humanitarian crises, conflicts and transitions from Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, the Philippines, Cuba and Iran, while uncovering the human stories at heart.”
- The Rights for Women season at Senate House Library (£FREE) until 15 December. Video intro.
- Students’ Union UCL Networks – if you applied for the membership, you will be able to join their clubs & societies, as well as their networks:
- the LGBT+ Students’ Network,
- the Black & Minority Ethnic Students’ Network, and/or
- the Gender & Feminism Society.
Hopefully these will get you started, and do let me know if you notice something happening around the city that you would like to share with others.
P.S. Watch this space – October is Black History Month in Britain.
Cheers,
Jovita (Pronouns: she/her/hers)
Academic Excellence & Inclusion Coordinator
Photo credit: Google