Issue 52 / 2022
THE HYPERLOCAL AND THE GLOBAL
Goldsmiths has always sought to look outwards, from serving our local communities to researching the issues that matter across the world. As we navigate the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, this outward role feels urgent, taking on renewed importance in an increasingly unequal and uncertain world. This edition of Goldlink sets out to explore both the hyperlocal and the global, sharing how our talented alumni community changes things for the better. We hear from the Co-Director of Yalla Hub, supporting migrant, Black and minority ethnic women in South London. And an NGO Communications Manager shares their work with SPARK in the Netherlands, helping young people to find employment in fragile states. Our current students are making their mark, too. Read on to learn about their activism exploring issues around climate justice and gender equality. We also share an update on our Civic University Agreement, working with 11 anchor institutions in Lewisham on projects to tackle climate change, boost economic prosperity, and support culture and wellbeing. The stories in this edition exemplify what the Goldsmiths community does best: finding creative solutions to the problems people face. It fills me with pride to see the impact of work by alumni, students and colleagues. As I write this, Lewisham is gearing up for a summer of activities marking its long-awaited London Borough of Culture year. I am delighted that Goldsmiths is playing a central role in this milestone year, working with local partners to showcase the borough we are proud to call home. I hope you enjoy reading about these acts of collaboration. They are essential as we move through such uncertain times. Professor Frances Corner OBE, Warden Goldsmiths, University of London
Right: Professor Frances Corner © Ben Queenborough
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News 02 London Borough of Culture 02 Research Excellence Framework 2021 04 Cracking a cold case 05 Sonic branding internships 06 Award for Forensic Architecture 07 Editors’ picks
Contents
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Global vision, local outlook Feature
Spotlight Alumni achievements
In Living Memory Showcase
Shining a light on Lewisham Feature
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Taking a stand Feature
31 Only at Goldsmiths Highlights
32 Where in the world...? Adding to the alumni picture
Golden days: back at Goldsmiths 50 years on A trip down memory lane
Contact Development & Alumni Office Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross, London SE14 6NW alumni@gold.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7896 2619 Update your details gold.ac.uk/alumni/update-details Give to Goldsmiths explore.gold/appeal
Facebook @GoldsmithsAlumni Twitter & Instagram @GoldAlumni Blog sites.gold.ac.uk/goldlink Editors Sarah Khan Jennifer New ( jennifernew.co.uk) Design Spy Studio (spystudio.co.uk)
Contributions for consideration may be submitted by email. We reserve the right to edit articles in the interests of brevity and clarity. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the writers and not necessarily of Goldsmiths. Goldlink is printed on paper accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council.
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News
LONDON BOROUGH OF CULTURE Lewisham is the London Borough of Culture for 2022, and since the start of the year local communities have been engaging in a range of activities and events that celebrate the unique character of Goldsmiths’ home neighbourhood. In cultural venues, parks and even on street corners across Lewisham, the year-long celebration tells the diverse stories of local trailblazers past and present through music, dance, debate, public art and creative challenges. The London Borough of Culture award is a Mayor of London initiative that was introduced by Sadiq Khan in 2017. The competition sees London’s 32 boroughs bid for more than £1million of funding to stage their programme of cultural events. Originally Lewisham was set to hold the title in 2021, but this was postponed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Goldsmiths was a key partner in the successful bid, which was themed around ‘cultural activism’. The submission highlighted Lewisham’s youth and diversity, and the need to tackle inequality and the climate crisis. This has played
out in recent months via initiatives including ‘Breathe: 2022’ – a public artwork showcasing the impact of air pollution on the borough and beyond – and through workshops that encourage attendees to consider what it would feel like to live in a world that is truly inclusive, designed by those who currently feel excluded. As the heritage partner for the borough-wide programme of events, Goldsmiths is helping to deliver several initiatives, including ‘In Living Memory’ (see pages 16–17) and a series of engagement activities with local businesses that forms part of our Civic University Agreement (see pages 18–23). Upcoming London Borough of Culture activities include ‘Moving Day’ – a site-specific theatre performance that focuses on growing older within the community – and ‘Close To Home’, a mass dance event that will invite people to discover stories of activism and change in Lewisham in a completely new way. Visit wearelewisham.com for more information.
RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK 2021 May 2022 saw the publication of results from the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the sector-wide review of research quality in UK universities. Goldsmiths received a series of positive results, with nearly four-fifths of our research rated 4* or 3*, meaning ‘worldleading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. This recognition of Goldsmiths as a leading research university also saw an overall increase in the volume of our research rated at 4* compared to the last REF in 2014. An uplift in our Grade Point Average (GPA, a measure of overall research quality) means the College has moved up five places to 51st in the UK for the quality of our research and just outside the top 10 of London institutions, according to an analysis of REF 2021 data by Times Higher Education. This is out of the 157 institutions that took part in REF 2021.
For 4* research we had impressive performances across many of our departments, including: • • • • •
Anthropology – 11th Art, Design and Visual Cultures – 21st Media, Communications and Cultural Studies – 4th Social, Therapeutic and Community Studies – 20th Sociology – 14th
In its first submission to the REF the Institute of Management Studies came 63rd in terms of 4* ratings, out of 108 submitting units. Professor Frances Corner, Warden of Goldsmiths, said: “Research is central to who we are at Goldsmiths and these results recognise the expertise and commitment of our research community. From changing child social work policy to reforming the commercial gambling sector – the work of our researchers is having a direct impact on the lives of people in the UK and beyond.”
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Lewisham is the London Borough of Culture for 2022 | Photo © Manuel Vason
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News
CRACKING A COLD CASE
An artist's impression of the unidentified man, and the striped wool tie and leather shoes he was wearing when removed from the North Sea
On 11 July 1994, the body of a 6ft 5in man wearing Britishmade shoes was recovered from the water to the north-west of Heligoland, a small archipelago that forms part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Attempts to identify him in the years since have been unsuccessful and the case remains open. Now, 28 years later, forensic psychologists at Goldsmiths are helping German police attempt to identify this probable murder victim. The new appeal for information has been launched by Wilhelmshaven investigators, the Oldenburg public prosecutor’s office, and the Lower Saxony Police Academy. Their intention is to identify the man’s name, inform his loved ones, and bring potential perpetrators to justice. Forensic psychology experts from Goldsmiths are working with charity Locate International, the University of Staffordshire and Plymouth Marjon University to appeal to the public in the hope that new lines of investigation can be opened. The Cold Case Investigations Team (CCIT) at Goldsmiths was approached by Locate, on behalf of the police, to help draw upon scientific research and theory to make the appeal for information as effective as possible. The CCIT advised on the type of images to include, purposefully directing people’s attention towards unique descriptive details that might aid identification.
The team’s research shows that activating memories from a particular period can help individuals remember more information from that time, and so the CCIT is also calling on the public to think back to some key events from 1993/1994 – from the first images taken by the Hubble telescope to the release of ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ – in the hope that this jogs people’s memories about the man they’re seeking to identify. The CCIT was developed in 2021 and is part of the Forensic Psychology Unit, based within the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths. The team consists of postgraduate volunteers, overseen by directors Professor Fiona Gabbert and Dr Adrian Scott.
“ACTIVATING MEMORIES FROM A PARTICULAR PERIOD CAN HELP INDIVIDUALS REMEMBER MORE”
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SONIC BRANDING INTERNSHIPS
Photo by C-D-X on Unsplash
The Music, Mind and Brain research group in the Department of Psychology has partnered with Amp Sound Branding to launch a paid graduate internship scheme, providing recent alumni with the opportunity to learn practical skills and receive insight into how the organisation helps transform clients’ brands through sound marketing. The partnership will also open up job opportunities in the worlds of tech, music and marketing, and generate new music psychology research for industry. Based in Munich, Amp is one of the world’s leading agencies for sonic branding – a rapidly growing branch of marketing that uses sounds and music to build a brand’s identity. The award-winning organisation has worked with some of the biggest companies globally, including Mastercard, Mercedes-Benz, The Kraft Heinz Company and Unilever. The six-month internship will be open to alumni from MSc Music, Mind and Brain. Amp will also be collaborating with academics and current students on the Masters to initiate joint research projects, with potential for research findings to result in real-world impact that shapes Amp’s work with clients while providing an impressive addition to students’ CVs.
Goldsmiths alumnus Bjorn Thorleifsson (MSc Consumer Behaviour, 2016) is Amp’s Head of Strategy and Research. He said: “The creation of music and emotional connection have always been intertwined, so to have access to the next generation of people examining this field with fresh ideas and opinions is critical for business growth at Amp.” The company has already welcomed two Goldsmiths graduates as interns in the Strategy and Research department – Ellen Murphy and Ceren Ayyildiz. Bjorn will be working closely with new interns to collaborate on projects and make sure they are getting the most out of the hands-on internships. Professor Daniel Müllensiefen, Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths and Co-Director of the MSc, worked alongside Amp to initiate the agreement. He said: “It’s essential that students and graduates gain real-life experience in the area that they are specialising in and learning about. Music and psychology are gaining traction within marketing and branding strategies, so this is a great opportunity for graduates of Goldsmiths to receive insight from a sonic branding agency like Amp.” Read what the agency said about the partnership at explore.gold/amp
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News
AWARD FOR FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE
Following one of their investigations, Forensic Architecture was able to provide evidence to public prosecutors that in 2015 Kurdish human rights lawyer, Tahir Elçi, was likely to have been killed by police rather than militants
Research agency Forensic Architecture (see page 31), which is based in Goldsmiths’ Department of Visual Cultures, has received the 2022 Institutional Peabody Award for “co-creating an entire new academic field and emergent media practice, using digital 3D modelling for human rights investigation and documentary, [and speaking] truth to computational power on a planetary scale”. The Peabody Awards honour excellence in storytelling that reflects the social issues and emerging voices of our day. The awards committee praised the agency: “Using the most sophisticated technologies, Forensic Architecture has instilled itself as a pivotal research agency investigating human rights violations. Congratulations to Eyal Weizman and all for their pivotal work in interactive journalism.” Eyal is Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths and Director of Forensic Architecture, which he set up 12 years ago. Forensic Architecture investigates human rights violations including violence committed by states, police forces, militaries and corporations. It works in partnership with institutions across civil society – from grassroots activists to legal teams, and international NGOs to media organisations – to carry out investigations with and on behalf of communities and individuals affected by conflict, police brutality, border regimes and environmental violence.
Investigations employ cutting-edge techniques in spatial and architectural analysis, digital modelling and immersive technologies, as well as documentary research, situated interviews and academic collaboration. This is carried out by a multi-disciplinary team made up of architects, computer scientists, artists, machine learning experts, media specialists, archaeologists, filmmakers and engineers. Findings from Forensic Architecture investigations have been presented in courtrooms worldwide, parliamentary inquiries and international media. One of Forensic Architecture’s ongoing investigations relates to the use of European arms in the bombing of Yemen from 2015 to the present day. Commissioned by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, the agency has been tasked with investigating the extent to which corporate and government executives of five European countries have been enabling serious violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen, including war crimes. The team has built an interactive cartographic platform that demonstrates for the first time the direct impact of European arms exports on the continuous targeting of civilians and civilian spaces on the ground. Find out more about the agency and its ongoing investigations at forensic-architecture.org
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EDITORS’ PICKS All The Names Given Alumnus, poet and spoken word artist Raymond Antrobus MBE FRSL has released his second collection of work, ‘All The Names Given’. Published in March, the lyrical collection is in turns funny, brutal and tender, covering themes including disability and human rights, depictions of race in the art world, and the complexities of family history. Raymond is deaf, and the addition of asides in the form of [Caption Poems] throughout the collection creates an affecting layer of meaning while also breaking new ground in form and content.
Colour Is Mine Rose Sinclair, Goldsmiths Senior Lecturer and PhD researcher, has curated ‘Colour Is Mine’ – a landmark retrospective of Trinidad-born British designer and textile artist Althea McNish. The exhibition, which is part of a three-year research project, showcases Althea’s multi-faceted designs and technical mastery. It will run until September at the William Morris Gallery in London.
Never Let Me Go Nine years after their last album, Placebo – fronted by Goldsmiths Music alumnus and Honorary Fellow Brian Molko – have released their eighth studio album, ‘Never Let Me Go’. Brian’s distinctive vocals are as present as ever, layered over synth, subtle melodies, and euphoric orchestral crescendos (as in track ‘The Prodigal’). The album’s themes are timely: alienation, nonnormative relationships, surveillance culture, media hypocrisy, and the desolation of realising the world is dying: “Somebody take a picture before it’s too late.”
James Blake x Endel In true multi-disciplinary style, alumnus James Blake has collaborated with artificial intelligence (AI) meditation app Endel for a project called ‘Wind Down’, designed to help users sleep more effectively. James created a composition (available in full on YouTube) specially for the project. He said: “It’s mesmerising to hear how my music blends with the science-based sounds of Endel’s AI and I think we’ve invented something not just beautiful or even meaningful, but truly practical.”
Cooking Sections Spatial practitioners Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, who met while studying Research Architecture at Goldsmiths in 2012, founded Cooking Sections to examine the systems that organise the world through food. Using site-responsive installation, performance and video, they explore the overlapping boundaries between art, architecture, ecology and geopolitics. Last year they were nominated for the Turner Prize for their work focusing on food and climate change. We welcome news from alumni of all ages and stages. Let us know your latest email address to stay informed about alumni, student and staff news from Goldsmiths: gold.ac.uk/alumni/join
Feature
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Feature
A HOME AWAY FROM HOME Reem Al-Awadhi studied the MA Social Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, graduating in 2017. The following year, Reem founded Yalla Hub – a network of immigrants and people from marginalised communities that support and uplift each other. Reem is Co-Director of the Hub and Co-Manager of Communitea Café, where members of the Hub share their time and experiences. “Growing up in an immigrant family, my everyday life was a practice of connecting the local with the global. A Yemeni family living in a small industrial town in China in the early 2000s was a path rarely trodden – many of our experiences were firsts and we had to discover how to navigate the hyperlocal without a support system. Learning the language, getting to grips with neighbourhood markets and systems of transportation… it was all experienced as ‘outside insiders’ – neither here nor there, always longing to connect both worlds of this home and back home harmoniously. While I was a student at Goldsmiths, my experiences as an immigrant shaped my areas of interest. When I started exploring research topics, I asked myself: where are the spaces that make you feel seen and heard? Where are the spaces that understand the paradox of longing to feel rooted but without having to uproot parts of yourself? Where can someone ask for advice and support in a casual, friendly setting? This is where the idea for Yalla Hub was born. I began looking into how to establish a home away from home. A space where people could connect over the unspoken understanding of the paradoxical situations that immigrants find themselves in (expectations versus reality, belonging versus isolation etc), and create experiences and stories – however temporary – where that boundary between local and global ceases to exist. To bring Yalla Hub to life, we needed a location that people could easily access and want to return to. So came Communitea, a small café in South Norwood that would become the home of Yalla Hub. Through my Masters I had developed the tools and methods for responding to social problems in a sustainable, impactful way. It was time to research ideas of ‘community’ and what that entails through case studies. I visited and spoke to people at community cafés, farms, and local education platforms, to explore how they came to be ‘community-oriented’. I learned how to structure a social enterprise to balance financial sustainability with meeting social goals. After completing my MA, I took part in the Graduate Entrepreneur scheme at Goldsmiths, where I received mentorship and support while establishing Yalla Hub and Communitea Café and running them for the first two years. Through the café, we have developed profound relationships with the local community and grown Yalla Hub’s network of mutual support. Communitea has become the hyperlocal and Yalla Hub is the global, and the line between where one starts and the other ends is unknown, with both feeding into each other interdependently. People get to connect through events, gatherings, informal one-to-one advice and workshops, and most importantly through the chance to eat, drink, listen to music, and share their troubles and joys together. Through mutual trust and understanding individuals have felt safe enough to seek informal support with the struggles
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they are facing – whether that relates to immigration status, housing advice, job-seeking guidance, or personal problems. This support system has been strengthened by the formation of the Croydon Refugee & New Communities Forum (CRNCF), which is a collective of activists, organisations and charities in the borough working to make it a more welcoming place for migrants. Being part of the forum, we’ve been able to relay the local challenges we witness to other organisations and charities in Croydon, and understand the wider needs of migrants and asylum seekers in the area. Yalla Hub’s focus for the future will be on the relationship between the locality of South Norwood and the context of being a 10-minute drive away from the Home Office. To many migrants and asylum seekers, South Norwood and Croydon are some of the first places they interact with in the UK. As such, through our work at Communitea Café and with the wider network of CRNCF, we hope to strengthen solidarity and coordination of support. In doing so we hope to continue having a positive impact on the experiences of migrants and marginalised members of the community.” yallahub.co.uk communitea.co.uk
“I BEGAN LOOKING INTO HOW TO ESTABLISH A HOME AWAY FROM HOME – WHERE THAT BOUNDARY BETWEEN LOCAL AND GLOBAL CEASES TO EXIST”
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HOPEFUL STORYTELLING FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT Sarah Page (BSc Psychology, 2013) has been working within international development and human rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for more than seven years, advising on strategy, storytelling and digital media. Sarah is a published freelance journalist, has a background in documentary filmmaking, and has spoken in numerous public forums about decolonising global development communications.
Left: Reem at Communitea Café Above: Sarah gathers stories of positivity and hope | Photo © SPARK Top: Sarah interviewing Delkwaz, a young Kurdish entrepreneur from Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq | Photo © SPARK
“I don’t think anyone goes to Goldsmiths expecting a typical university experience. Growing up in Cornwall, I wasn’t exactly exposed to that many people who were physically, culturally, politically or any other ‘-ally’ different to me. My psychology degree taught me to look at human behaviour and understand the motives for why people do the things they do. I think this helped me to listen, properly, to the people I now work with. I’m able to communicate with individuals from all walks of life and collaborate on hopeful narratives that can do some good. When I was fresh out of Goldsmiths, I worked with a Peckham-based documentary filmmaker, Mark Saunders, founder of Spectacle Media. He set me on my path towards a career in communications. We made a film together, ‘Bleacher in the Rye’, which documents a fractious moment in Peckham’s tilt towards gentrification and redevelopment. Local residents and business owners took on British railway giant, Network Rail, in a fight about £5million funding that was promised to the area after the 2011 riots. Telling nuanced stories is important in an age where we only read the headlines. (You can watch the film for the reasonable sum of 99p on Vimeo and you’ll be supporting an independent, hyperlocal filmmaker in the process.)
Feature After that I worked in communications roles at Human Rights Watch UK and Amnesty International, before joining SPARK – a Dutch-founded international non-governmental organisation. SPARK focuses on job creation for young people in fragile and conflict-affected regions like Syria, South Sudan and Afghanistan, so that they can rebuild their own communities with education, skills, entrepreneurial ideas and economic stability. SPARK also acts as a broker and capacity builder, supporting smaller organisations to grow and access global development funding themselves. As the Communications Manager of a team of incredibly talented professionals – all of whom are from the countries and communities where we work (and one of which, by chance, is a Goldsmiths graduate as well) – we make a conscious choice to challenge negative stereotypes by using hopebased communication methods (a tool developed by Thomas Coombes, Amnesty International’s former Head of Brand and Deputy Communications Director). We work with participants of SPARK’s programmes to highlight positivity and hope: hope that you can be a woman beekeeper in Yemen; that you can be a Syrian refugee in Lebanon and also a kickass web developer; that you can be an Iraqi IDP (internationally displaced person) and work remotely for a global company. Hope is a powerful tool. We choose to work with local creatives, photographers and filmmakers, who speak the same language and are often from the communities they document. We also provide as much content as possible in the languages of the regions we work in. Last year, our team was nominated for an award by Expertise Centre Humanitarian Communication for our film about a young Burundian entrepreneur, which was produced in Kirundi (the local language) and directed by Burundian filmmakers. One of my Goldsmiths classes has stuck with me for all these years – ‘Evolutionary Psychology’, which looked at the behaviour of humans today through the lens of our biological evolution. Now, when I train people in storytelling principles, I go all the way back to the evolution of language and culture. Storytelling is innate and it shapes everything we do. Looking back at my time at Goldsmiths, my main takeaway has been the people. The friends I made there I still call my best friends to this day, despite living across several continents now. I met artists who taught me to sew reams of fabric together, anthropologists who rolled their eyes at my high heels, digital media students from the South Pacific who taught me how to hula. I was challenged at Goldsmiths, over lots of cups of tea.” sarahlpage.com
“STORYTELLING IS INNATE AND IT SHAPES EVERYTHING WE DO”
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TACKLING THE BROKEN FOOD SYSTEM Nantaporn Thirapongphaiboon graduated from Goldsmiths in 2018 with a Masters in Social Entrepreneurship. She is an Outreach Manager at Scholars of Sustenance Foundation, Thailand’s first food rescue organisation. She is also taking on bigger roles including as a member of the United Nations in Thailand’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Youth Panel. “I have always been interested in food and nutrition, especially how food has an impact on our health, minds and bodies. In my first job after graduating from my business degree in marketing I worked with a future protein start-up in Bangkok, and I learned about how unsustainable current food production is. I soon became curious about how to measure the social and environmental impacts of the business, and smartly communicate them with the intention of securing more support for upscaling. So I decided to pursue a Masters degree at Goldsmiths to gain more knowledge in the hope that one day I could become a ‘local food system changemaker’ back in my home country, Thailand. The MA was challenging, but I really enjoyed every class, assignment and moment I had with my classmates from different countries, who shared their change-making experiences of their own local communities. The key thing I learned was the importance of collaboration among different actors in the economic model (civil society, private sector, government), because no one can ever work alone to achieve systemic changes. What inspired me the most was when the whole class got a chance to join a Social Enterprise Day London tour with the course director. He brought us to meet different social entrepreneurs who had established their businesses to solve particular social problems. This experience lit a fire in my heart to go out and explore more social initiatives in London. Eventually I found FoodCycle in Lewisham and it changed my life’s journey to what I’m now doing today. FoodCycle is a charity that nourishes the hungry and lonely in the community by turning good quality surplus food into hot and nutritious meals. I volunteered in different roles, from rescuing surplus ingredients from the Sainsbury’s opposite my student accommodation to supporting the soup kitchen team cooking meals for isolated elderly and homeless people in Lewisham.
13 I learned a lot about our broken food system in the capitalist world. We waste so much good food, and yet there are still a lot of people who cannot access that food. After I graduated from Goldsmiths, I spent a gap year in the Netherlands learning more about circular food systems and sustainability communications at various organisations. When Covid-19 hit I decided to come back to Thailand and start my new journey, making changes at a local level. Since then I’ve been working as Outreach Manager at the Scholars of Sustenance Foundation, which aims to improve food equity by saving surplus food from more than 700 local and international partners and distributing it to vulnerable communities across 34 provinces in the country. I lead on fundraising, marketing communications, partnerships and impact data analytics. Having learned at Goldsmiths that big-picture changes need to be made by collaborating with government and private companies, I’ve been very proactive in knocking on doors and inviting different sectors to work together. I’ve become an advocate for food sustainability and had the chance to speak about food waste and hunger issues at TEDxBangkok. I was also honoured to be invited by the United Nations in Thailand to become a member of the SDGs Youth Panel to promote food rescue work and inspire other young people around the world to be change agents for a sustainable and resilient future. We hope to establish a national food bank in the near future, to support people in need. In doing all of this work towards zero food waste and zero hunger I am confident we can build a future where we leave no one behind.”○ scholarsofsustenance.org/sos-thailand
Left: Nantaporn graduated from the MA Social Entrepreneurship Right: Scholars of Sustenance Foundation distributes surplus food to vulnerable communities across Thailand | Photo © MGR Online
“THE EXPERIENCE LIT A FIRE IN MY HEART AND CHANGED MY LIFE’S JOURNEY TO WHAT I’M NOW DOING TODAY”
SPOT LIGHT Alumni achievements
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15 Goldsmiths alumni make a positive impact on society, inspiring excellence and fresh perspectives. They include leaders in the creative industries, pioneers in teaching and social work, and renowned artists, musicians and filmmakers. They are recognised for making their mark on every imaginable field, and throughout the year they win awards, receive nominations and are selected for prestigious positions. Here are some of their recent achievements: Computing James Ohene-Djan Award: Excellence in the Use of Technology in Pharmacy Practice 2022 Design Millicent Barty Honour: Obama Foundation Scholar 2021 Jordi Morera Award: Best British Short Animation BAFTA 2022 Educational Studies Raymond Antrobus Shortlist: TS Eliot Prize 2021 and Costa Poetry Award 2021 English and Creative Writing Rachel Darwin Award: Bath Children’s Novel Award 2021 Susannah Dickey Longlist: Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award 2021 Imogen Fox Award: Pat Kavanagh Prize 2022 Katrina Naomi Award: The Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize 2021
Right: Ely Dagher | Photo © Tarek Moukaddem, L'Officiel Levant
Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Karis Kelly Award: Playwrights’ Scheme Bursary Winner 2022 Philipp Lippert Award: RTS Student Television Awards 2021 for Postgraduate Editing and Postgraduate Writing Jacob Love Award: Concord Art Prize 2021 Mathapelo Mofokeng Award: PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers 2021 Music Joy Stacey Production: Assistant Engineer, Arcade Fire: ‘We’ 2022 Politics and International Relations Oksana Musaelyan Finalist: Study UK Alumni Social Action Award 2022 Hamza Taouzzale Elected: Westminster City Council Lord Mayor 2022 Theatre and Performance Ana Mendes Honorable Mention: Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts Grand Prize 2021 Visual Cultures Daniel Fernández Pascual Shortlist: Turner Prize 2021 Alon Schwabe Shortlist: Turner Prize 2021
Ely Dagher MA Image & Communication, 2009 Nominations: Critics Awards for Arab Films 2022 & Cannes Film Festival 2021 Ely Dagher has been nominated in the Best Director and Best Screenplay categories at this year’s Critics Awards for Arab Films for his first feature film, ‘The Sea Ahead’. The work focuses on Jana, who returns to Beirut after a long absence and finds herself reconnecting with the familiar yet strange life she left. The film was also nominated for the Caméra d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival 2021. Previously Ely won the 2015 Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes for his animated work, ‘Waves 98’.
Showcase
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IN LIVING MEMORY Last year, Lewisham residents were asked what stories about the borough needed to be told. Seven community-led projects were selected from around 70 expressions of interest. From this, ‘In Living Memory’ was born. The London Borough of Culture project, supported by Goldsmiths, aims to tell a new people’s history of post-war Lewisham and in doing so celebrate the diversity and heritage of our home borough. Each project focuses on a different aspect of the borough’s recent past – from ‘Pioneers and Protest’, inspired by the 1981 Black People’s Day of Action, to ‘Where To, Now That The Sequins Have Gone?’, which will explore Lewisham’s lost gay venues of the 1970s–90s and the role of LGBTQ+ spaces today. Project leads are undertaking primary research by gathering the memories of local people, receiving training and support from Goldsmiths researchers and creative practitioners along the way. Throughout 2022, these histories will be brought to life to transform public spaces across the borough and populate a new digital museum of Lewisham life. Alumna Joy Prime (PGCE Design & Technology, 2011; MA Education: Culture, Language & Identity, 2021) is leading a project inspired by her mother, who travelled to London in 1963 as part of the Windrush generation. “Having spent all my life watching my mother make beautiful garments for family and friends, I felt something was missing from the fashion history I studied in school and university, because I never saw anything that represented her legacy,” Joy explains. Joy’s project, ‘A Caribbean Couturier in Lewisham’, will explore the forgotten textile legacies of women of the Windrush generation through design collaborations, workshops and an immersive exhibition in Lewisham Shopping Centre that will take place during Black History Month in October. “My hope is to start a conversation within the community that reminds us of the value of the inspirational, resilient women and men who came to England to contribute to the post-war efforts,” says Joy. “Where they came from and what they brought with them should never be forgotten.” Find out more about the project and how to share your memories of Lewisham at sites.gold.ac.uk/inlivingmemory
Right: Joy’s grandparents, Israel and Winifred Johnson. The dress worn by Winifred was one of the early pieces made by Joy’s mother, Sylvia JohnsonPrime-Holder Above: Sylvia wearing her handmade wedding gown, which was reflective of the work produced by designer-makers of that era
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Feature
SHINING A LIGHT ON LEWISHAM
Goldsmiths is among the first universities in the UK to have developed a Civic University Agreement, committing us to drive positive social change in the London Borough of Lewisham. From educational opportunities to regeneration and growth, and climate action to culture, health and wellbeing, Goldsmiths is working alongside key local organisations to address some of the most pressing issues that affect our borough and its people.
Feature Lewisham is a vibrant place. It has a population of more than 300,000 – making it similar in size to the city of Newcastle. It is also the UK’s 15th most ethnically diverse Local Authority, and the second most diverse borough in London.* Last year, Lewisham Council was awarded the title of Council of Sanctuary in recognition of its track record of supporting refugees and migrants. It’s also home to an energetic voluntary sector, renowned cultural institutions, and a lively artistic community – making it one of London’s first Creative Enterprise Zones. And, of course, it is the 2022 London Borough of Culture. But Lewisham also has its challenges. It’s one of the most deprived Local Authority areas in England (63rd out of 326) and the seventh most deprived borough in London.† A third of children in Lewisham grow up in poverty.‡ Conditions such as anxiety and depression affect nearly 1 in 5 people locally, and health inequalities are significant.* Meanwhile, Lewisham has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030, something that can only be achieved if individuals, businesses, institutions and transport providers take collective responsibility for reducing emissions. Amid this backdrop, Goldsmiths is working with 11 organisations in the borough – including Lewisham Council, The Albany and Lewisham Local – to make it an even better and more inclusive place to live, work, create and learn. The Civic University Agreement (CUA) sets out the shared vision and action plan for 2021–2024 agreed by these institutions, focusing on several priority areas: educational opportunities and learning aspirations; economic prosperity, jobs and growth; culture, health and wellbeing; and environmental sustainability. “There were lots of community listening events to get to this point, as well as extensive consultation with the partner organisations – it’s been a genuinely co-designed process,” explains Michael Eades, Head of Civic Engagement at Goldsmiths. He joined the College in 2021, being brought on board to deliver the CUA after it had been initiated and developed by his predecessor and other colleagues. Goldsmiths is among a small number of institutions in the UK to have developed a CUA, and the first in London. Michael says that this led to some interesting considerations. “We’re the first university that has had to grapple with what it means to be a civic institution in a city of 10 million people. For that reason, we had to draw a boundary somewhere – hence the Local Authority boundary. Lewisham has its own distinct and unique identity, so it’s almost a city within a city: it’s got its own Mayor, and it’s quite a radical place with a radical university within it.” As one of the three largest employers in the borough (along with Lewisham Council, and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust), Goldsmiths has a key part to play in civic engagement and the successful delivery of the agreement. Michael says: “By its very presence, Goldsmiths makes a positive impact on Lewisham: it’s a major employer, it brings a lot of money into the borough, and students and staff come here and contribute to this buzzy and interesting part of London. But going beyond this, Goldsmiths is like a big laboratory of exciting ideas and creative practice, and you can see that this already spills beyond the confines of the campus – whether that’s through the free talks and concerts that are open to the public, by providing artistic inspiration via the amazing cultural
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“LEWISHAM HAS ITS OWN DISTINCT AND UNIQUE IDENTITY, SO IT’S ALMOST A CITY WITHIN A CITY”
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ABOUT LEWISHAM • • • • • •
Population of more than 300k 2nd most diverse borough in London 2022 London Borough of Culture Home to more than 75 nationalities London Creative Enterprise Zone Aims to be carbon neutral by 2030
CIVIC UNIVERSITY AGREEMENT PARTNER ORGANISATIONS • The Albany • Goldsmiths, University of London • Horniman Museum and Gardens • Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust • Lewisham College • Lewisham Council • Lewisham Homes • Lewisham Local • Migration Museum • Phoenix Community Housing • Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance • 999 Club
SPOTLIGHT ON… MIGRATION MUSEUM
Above: London Borough of Culture initiatives play a big part in the Civic University Agreement | Photo © Roswitha Chesher
The Migration Museum explores how the movement of people to and from Britain has shaped who we are – as individuals, communities, and nations. Currently based in Lewisham Shopping Centre, the museum stages dynamic exhibitions and events, as well as a far-reaching education programme delivering workshops to school, university and adult learners; teacher training; and partnerships with major exam boards, with the aim of shaping the national curriculum. The Migration Museum has free admission, and welcomes enquiries from the Goldsmiths community about volunteering and placement opportunities. migrationmuseum.org
Feature programme of the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, or through the academic exchanges that take place with community partners and local businesses. It’s a really vibrant ecosystem already. And it’s my job to make sure that these exciting, innovative ideas keep spilling over the edges of the university and connecting locally.” Michael is in the midst of designing the infrastructure and processes that will enable Goldsmiths to deliver the commitments laid out in the CUA. The College already has a long tradition of civic work, and the agreement brings together existing activities alongside new initiatives. “One of the things that drew me to Goldsmiths was that it’s already a really strong communityfacing university,” he says. “A lot of the work with the CUA is related to supporting, amplifying and celebrating the things that colleagues at Goldsmiths are already doing. For example, we already offer the London Living Wage, and do a lot of work with schools and colleges in widening access to education.” There will also be flagship initiatives that bring together the expertise of several partner organisations. One such example is the establishment of wellbeing clinics in the borough. These will include counselling and family support services delivered by Goldsmiths Social and Community Work students under the supervision of qualified staff. The London Borough of Culture provides another example, with activities taking place under its umbrella providing a key priority this year. It has already brought unique opportunities for civic engagement and connection – from straightforward cultural events and activities to participating in a project called ‘Creative Futures’, enabling the next generation to consider careers in the creative industries. “It’s an interesting time for Lewisham and its cultural identity – particularly the way that it thinks about itself,” Michael explains. “Cultural activity in Lewisham is already really vibrant – there’s loads going on, and it’s particularly rich in history, heritage and creative people. So it’s about enhancing that and shining a light on it so that it gets experienced by a wider audience.” Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham, is similarly excited about what the CUA means for the borough. He says: “I am proud to see our key local organisations working together to support Lewisham. Independently we are all committed to improving the lives of people in our borough, but together we can achieve so much more, especially in the ongoing financial climate.”
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National challenges and global crises have played their part in shaping the CUA’s hyperlocal endeavour. “It’s fair to say that the agreement was very much formed in the crucible of Covid,” explains Michael. “When you read through it you can see that it’s really focused on being collaborative – it’s about the partner organisations joining together and making a collective commitment. It’s a spirit of togetherness: what have we got that we can share and use in common to make the city and borough a better place? And what can we learn from one another?” Michael has already been discovering the answer to that question. “One great example relates to responses to the climate crisis. Through the Green New Deal, we are taking action against the climate emergency, and so are partners like Lewisham Council. They’re looking for new perspectives on some of their climate work, and they’re thinking about the best ways to develop parks and new public spaces. And then at Goldsmiths we have research groups of academics and students who are looking at that same issue from different angles. As a university we can uniquely provide this kind of deep, nuanced research knowledge and idea generation.” In forging these opportunities for synergy and collaboration it’s hoped that some of Lewisham’s toughest challenges can be overcome, and that its greatest strengths can be maximised. The Agreement demonstrates the power of a hyperlocal focus in the hands of a globally recognised institution ○ You can find out more about the Goldsmiths Civic University Agreement at gold.ac.uk/community/civic/cua * Lewisham’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment † Overall Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 ‡ End Child Poverty 2021
“GOLDSMITHS IS LIKE A BIG LABORATORY OF EXCITING IDEAS AND CREATIVE PRACTICE, AND THIS ALREADY SPILLS BEYOND THE CONFINES OF THE CAMPUS”
23 Our vibrant events programme (below) and public gallery Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art (right) help exciting ideas and creative practice connect locally and beyond
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GOLDEN DAYS Back at Goldsmiths 50 years on.
25 In October 2021, alumni from the 1970s and 80s returned to New Cross for a reunion hosted by David Plews (Class of 1976) and Yvette Alcock née Malone (Class of 1986). Alumni guests were greeted in Goldsmiths’ Great Hall with words of welcome from the Warden and a lively speech by David. They embarked on tours of the campus, including new spaces and old haunts, before finally gathering for drinks in the Students’ Union bar and poring over photos from their days at Goldsmiths, with David Bowie and The Clash blaring from the speakers. The reunion was no small undertaking, but David – who is in training for an Ironman Triathlon – is evidently not one to shy away from a challenge. He had previously hosted a successful first gathering in New Cross in 2018. When the idea of another reunion was floated in a ‘Goldies’ Facebook group for alumni from the 70s and 80s, David reached out to the Goldsmiths alumni team to organise something bigger and better. Once the news was announced, there was an immediate outpouring of enthusiasm – and 200 tickets were sold. David reflected on the reunion: “People were there who hadn’t seen old College friends for decades. It was a great day.” This seems to have been the prevailing view: one guest told staff, “I shall value my tote bag and badge, and continue to feel proud that I was one of the privileged to have attended Goldsmiths.” For others, returning to New Cross after decades was a surreal experience. Finbarr (Class of 1989) told us: “The emotion I felt coming off that New Cross train was a real surprise – it really hit me.” Vivienne (Class of 1977) recalled: “Lots of things are exactly the same as we remember them, like that wonderful corridor as you first come in – but they have moved the bar!” Despite changes to the campus, Goldsmiths’ vibrant political culture remains unchanged. Nitin (Class of 1980) noted: “People remember that the 1980s was a hotbed of politics, and Goldsmiths College was one of the most politically motivated.” Among the reunion attendees there was a group of longstanding friends who campaigned to free Nelson Mandela during their time at Goldsmiths, having met through the African Caribbean
A trip down memory lane Society. Others recalled blocking Westminster Bridge to demonstrate against the introduction of student loans. One attendee recollected seeing Damien Hirst outside a lecture theatre with a rat in a cage inside his motorcycle helmet to protest the College’s Ethics Committee banning his art. Caroline (Class of 1989) reflected on her time as Vice President of Welfare at Goldsmiths Students’ Union, saying: “I became very politically aware while at Goldsmiths and I think the issues for us were very different. One of the big things that I ran was an AIDS campaign, trying to encourage safer sex practices.” Beyond the political, is the personal: Goldsmiths was also the starting point for many life-long friendships and partnerships. Sarah (Class of 1991) and Tim (Class of 1990) met at Goldsmiths during her first term and his second year. Thirty-one years later, they are still together. “Goldsmiths has got a very special place in our hearts and [represented] some of the best times of my life”, Sarah told us. Elspeth, Vivienne and Dianne (Class of 1977) are still best friends, dating back to when they enrolled at the Students’ Union and settled into university life during the first week. The reunion held added poignancy for those for whom it was 50 years – almost to the day – since they started at Goldsmiths. One attendee shared: “It was particularly moving to be in the Great Hall and to remember those who are now gone, and to think that they shared the Goldsmiths experience too. It was a moment of unity.” David reflected on the event: “The best thing for me has been how everyone held such positive memories and feelings about our time at Goldsmiths all those years ago. So much so that there have been loads of requests for me to organise another one. I reckon we’ll go again in 2023!” Don’t miss out on future events, news, benefits and updates – join the alumni community: gold.ac.uk/alumni/join To see video footage from the reunion, scan the code using your smartphone. explore.gold/goldiesreunion2021
Above: Happy faces in the Students' Union Bar and outside the Richard Hoggart Building at a memorable alumni reunion Left: Vintage photographs show how the campus has changed in the past 50 years – and the parts that remain reassuringly the same Every effort has been made to find the photographer and subjects of these images. Please contact alumni@gold.ac.uk if you have information that may help us identify them
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TAKING A STAND Across classrooms, soup kitchens, rallies and even Leonardo DiCaprio’s Instagram account, Goldsmiths students are fighting injustice locally and globally.
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FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE WORLD STAGE While studying BA History & Politics, Daze Aghaji has run for the European Parliament election and carried out extensive climate justice activism, including through her work with Extinction Rebellion.
“MY STORY DID THE ROUNDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA, WITH EVEN LEONARDO DICAPRIO SHARING IT!”
“I ran for the European Parliament during the exam season of my first year of uni – I’d go and do some campaigning, but I’d also have all my textbooks in my bag! I’d joined Extinction Rebellion a few months previously, carrying out activism and helping to organise one of their sites, and this inspired me to run as a Climate and Ecological Emergency Independent to become an MEP. Things got really big very quickly – a fellow student at Goldsmiths interviewed me for local news website EastLondonLines, and it was picked up by the national press; I remember The Guardian coming to do a photoshoot of me on campus. After that, it did the rounds on social media, with even Leonardo DiCaprio sharing my story! I started getting invited to speak at international festivals, so I did a grand tour, carrying out lots of talks and workshops. I even went to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum. Activism is very much a job you do in debt, and being a broke student doesn’t help. To make my activism sustainable I would charge the global leaders and big companies to deliver sessions, which meant I could carry out workshops locally with young people for free. It’s important to me to link the dots between the everyday realities of people of colour and working class people in the UK to the larger issue of the environment. For example, we’re obviously in a cost-of-living crisis. This is not separate to the climate crisis – the same behaviours that mean we don’t care for each other or empathise with each other are at the root of both. A lot of my conversational work is about connecting the ‘end of the day’ with the end of the world. When people can see that fighting for climate action is an act of solidarity with all the other issues, and it’s about coming together to fight things from different angles, that’s when we’re going to get the just transition that we desire. I was lucky to have awesome lecturers at Goldsmiths and be guided by lots of political thought leaders. It’s quite amazing to be somewhere that fosters your imagination and your activity outside of studying. It was really difficult to juggle everything, but being at university helped anchor me down in normal life, because what was going on outside of that was far from normal for someone of my age. Being able to go from speaking with world leaders to sitting in a classroom and having time to think and develop my own thoughts was so important.”
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PUSHING FOR GLOBAL SOCIAL CHANGE Kristian-Marc Paul is coming to the end of his MA Global Political Economy. While studying he has undertaken gender equality and climate justice activism on a local and global scale, building on his extensive experience in these areas and his longstanding commitment to social change. “I’m from Singapore and did my undergrad liberal arts degree there, majoring in anthropology. It had a big part to play in the projects and activism that I’ve been doing ever since. I always knew that I wanted to go back to school and do a Masters, and the Goldsmiths MA allowed me to bring together my academic and external interests in social issues like gender equality and climate justice. I also knew from friends and my own research that Goldsmiths offered a close-knit and artistic community with a rich history of dialogue and activism. As someone who’s always believed that what you experience outside of the classroom is just as important as what you learn in it, it seemed like the perfect place.
“AS SOMEONE WHO’S ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS WHAT YOU LEARN IN IT, GOLDSMITHS SEEMED LIKE THE PERFECT PLACE”
p26–27, left: Daze campaigning with Extinction Rebellion | Photos © Neal Megaw Right: Kristian-Marc undertakes gender equality and climate justice activism on a local and global scale
As a male I think a lot about my role in pushing gender equality and raising awareness among men, making sure that I’m doing that labour of having those conversations. I’ve written lots of opinion pieces and done interviews and panel discussions focusing on why it’s so important for men to drive social change. I’ve also undertaken gender equity work in Singapore, pushing the government on policy issues and being part of a team that put together a shadow policy brief on behalf of the prominent feminist organisation AWARE in response to a white paper on women’s issues. For my Masters dissertation I’m exploring feminist discourses within Singapore, including the extent to which the military has influenced them and whether it has shaped expressions of how feminism is performed. I’ve worked at [open-source technology company] Red Hat for nearly three years and for the first two I was their Diversity and Inclusion Programme Coordinator for the Asia Pacific region, developing programmes and looking at strategy and policy work – things like making sure employee benefits were more inclusive to different identities, and being more intentional when it came to diversifying recruitment processes. I’ve now got a global role in a newly established experience and listening team, ensuring that people who’ve historically been sidelined have their voices heard. I’m also a proud member of climate justice movement SG Climate Rally, and in 2019 we held Singapore’s first ever physical climate rally – a huge achievement that exceeded our expectations. What was really important to us was changing people’s messaging around the climate crisis. In Singapore the narrative had always been focused on individual action, but we wanted the bigger picture structural forces at play to be acknowledged – like the fact that Singapore is still a hub for the petrochemical industry. There have been some positive steps forward: when Singapore held its general elections in 2020, environmental climate policies started being articulated in party manifestos for the first time. There’s a growing realisation that this is something people care about. As someone who identifies as an activist, the conversations and experiences you have with people are for me where I get the most education. It’s been great to meet like-minded individuals at Goldsmiths and it’s been a very fulfilling experience – intellectually and emotionally.”
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A COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY LOCALLY AND BEYOND Sarah Adejuwon is in her third year of the Goldsmiths LLB Law degree. Sarah grew up in Peckham and went to college in Lewisham. Her experiences as a local resident and at Goldsmiths have inspired her to make a difference on a larger scale. “My journey at Goldsmiths has been very reflective – not always easy, but very fun as I have discovered that I am passionate about helping people. Through my studies and work I’ve developed a commitment to helping my community serve the needs of local people, as there is so much that needs to be done to encourage collaboration, diversity and self-investment. While studying I’ve worked as a Student Ambassador at Goldsmiths, and doing this I’ve been privileged enough to share my experiences with prospective students, particularly my route into university as a care leaver. I’ve strived to involve myself in acts of service to give back to the local community – for example, providing mentoring to people who have spent time in care, and being a Southwark Council Young Inspector and advocating for care leavers that way. Outside of university I also help supervise the Peckham Soup Kitchen project. It started out as a community initiative that was established during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, to help families respond to growing poverty by providing them with weekly food and toiletries. My time at Goldsmiths has given me a new perspective on things and made me value higher education even more than I already did. I now plan on doing a law Masters with legal practice and building up my work experience as a paralegal. Eventually I want to qualify as a solicitor. I’m eager to specialise in employment law to protect people in the workplace. Goldsmiths is all about the community and I have seen how a lack of resources can affect people. I hope in the future to be a person who donates a huge amount of funding to pioneer the change I would like to see.”○
“THROUGH MY STUDIES AND WORK I’VE DEVELOPED A COMMITMENT TO HELPING MY COMMUNITY SERVE THE NEEDS OF LOCAL PEOPLE”
Above: In her role as a Goldsmiths Student Ambassador, Sarah has assisted many prospective students at Open Days and other events Right: Monk the Labrador helps sensitise MA Ecology, Culture and Society students to the lessons that animals can teach
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Goldsmiths alumni have long included household names in the arts and creative industries, from Vivienne Westwood to Kae Tempest, Bernardine Evaristo to John Cale, Alex James to Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Antony Gormley to Steve McQueen. But did you know that we also teach subjects that run the gamut of human rights, law, ecology, technology and architecture? These aren’t always fields typically associated with the College, but of course they are delivered in a uniquely ‘Goldsmiths’ way. Here we highlight just a few of them. Criminology Goldsmiths now offers a single-honours BA Criminology degree that’s shaping future generations of experts in youth work, counselling, human rights and counterterrorism. It offers an interdisciplinary approach while still being strongly rooted in the College’s sociology and urban studies traditions. Students are urged to think imaginatively and critically about things that other programmes may accept as the status quo. Jennifer Fleetwood, Senior Lecturer, explains: “We challenge our students to ask serious questions. Like can we abolish the police? And what would a world without prisons look like?” This thinking spans continents: students cover issues in the UK and the USA but also learn about policing in India, dictators in South America, and women’s reproductive rights the world over. Jennifer adds: “Currently I have
Highlights
students researching subjects as diverse as violence against women in Turkey, and drug policy in Poland.” Ecology, Culture and Society While criminology students grapple with reinventing the socio-political status quo, those on the nascent MA Ecology, Culture and Society degree take a unique and existence-defining approach to a field of study that is typically thought of as a science, but – as they soon learn – is so much more. The programme explores issues like runaway climate change, mass extinctions, biodiversity, animal interaction, and even the way ecology is reflected and reimagined in fiction. Not many other ecology programmes can say their reading list includes names like Ursula K. Le Guin, J.G. Ballard and N.K. Jemisin – nor can they say their teaching staff includes a Labrador. One of the MA’s core modules, ‘The Ethics and Politics of Animals’, taught by Mariam Motamedi-Fraser, asks students to engage with the challenges raised by recent developments in conceptions of animals. “This work, which is certainly humbling in terms of understanding animal capabilities, has the potential to revolutionise how we think about animal-human relations,” explains Mariam. This line of thinking has major implications on our relationship to agriculture, domestication, ethics, politics and philosophy.
Research Architecture Forensic Architecture has received global renown for its data-led, justice-oriented investigations that have real-world implications. From Greece to Grenfell, Hanau to Colombia, and an impressive range of other sites, this small and innovative research agency has a track record for holding to account enablers of human rights abuses, environmental destruction, and state violence. The organisation has investigated the killing of Mark Duggan in London, missing persons at the US-Mexico border, and drone strikes in Afghanistan – and much more (see page 6). Postgraduates can study the MA Research Architecture, a core tenet of which is to push back in a post-truth world by taking the tools of investigation and using them to empower the people who are affected. At the time of writing, there is nowhere else students can study architectural and spatial practices as applied to conflict zones such as Syria and Ukraine, thereby adding meaningful evidence and research to the archives of human history in real time. Bob Trafford, Research Coordinator at Forensic Architecture, describes the work of their small team of specialists as “like a mosquito: versatile and impactful”, adding that the founding of this unique and growing discipline “could only have happened at Goldsmiths”. Find out more about these and other unique Goldsmiths degrees at gold.ac.uk/course-finder
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Adding to the alumni picture
You may have heard references to the ‘alumni community’ or the ‘Goldsmiths community’. But what does this actually mean? If you studied at Goldsmiths you are considered part of a distinctive group that includes thinkers, writers, advocates, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, actors, activists, filmmakers and educators. Our alumni bring energy, curiosity, creativity, ideas, action and optimism to their fields of interest and have an impact on the wider world – whether hyperlocally or globally. They are people who want to make a positive change and help others, who contribute to culture and a stronger, fairer society. Each year yet more Goldsmiths students graduate and join this group. They go on to make a unique mark on their slice of the world in industries, organisations, roles and locations that may surprise you. Take a look at our snapshot of what Goldsmiths alumni are doing now – and where. However this picture is far from complete. We’d love to hear from you to find out where you’re working and living, so we can add your story to this vibrant – and growing – tapestry.
Top 5 industries that Goldsmiths alumni work in:
1 ARTS 2 EDUCATION 3 MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLISHING 4 HEALTHCARE AND WELLBEING 5 DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY Data source: This information has been aggregated based on updates provided by alumni. If you think your details are out of date, please scan the code opposite.
HE WORLD…? Concentration of alumni outside the UK (top 5 countries):
Some of the top employers of our alumni are:
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1 2 3 4 5
USA CHINA GERMANY JAPAN SOUTH KOREA
BBC NHS SONY TATE GOOGLE
HELP US ADD TO THE ALUMNI PICTURE We would love to hear from alumni of all ages and stages to help us understand how far and wide the alumni community stretches. This will also ensure that you can access our exclusive Goldsmiths-only social network, where you can make connections and start collaborations with people all around the world. Update your details at explore.gold/g52alumnipicture
‘The hyperlocal and the global’ explores how Goldsmiths alumni, students and staff create change locally and globally through innovative ideas, practice and research while remaining rooted in their local communities. Cover by illustrator, alumnus and local resident, Joshua Drewe ( joshuadrewe.com).
