Student spot Uma-Johanna Shah

(2019, Spanish & German)

Meet Uma-Johanna, a linguist with designs on the art world.

Diptych, Trinity Lane, Collages.

My Cambridge experience certainly has been a strange one so far, spending more of my time away from College than in it! However, even in the time I have spent away, during lockdowns and on my year abroad, I have been able to join a number of student-led projects which demonstrate and amplify the incredible talent of the students here.

Over the first lockdown, I joined Untangling the Knot, a University-wide project documenting the experiences – good, bad, and ugly – of students of colour at Cambridge and other UK universities. Not only did this project allow me to reflect on my own experiences, but also to feel a sense of community that the University cannot necessarily create. Through others’ stories, I became conscious of the tension between my wish to stay true to my heritage and my desire to assimilate into, and even to thrive, in a white majority space. I also had the opportunity to collaborate with Mixedracefaces (a global platform dedicated to sharing the experiences of mixed-race people) on a project centred on navigating mixed identity at the University of Cambridge.

Over the second lockdown, I began working as a designer for the inaugural issue of The Cambridge Journal of Law, Politics, and Art, created by a fellow Trinity student Alexander (Sami) Kardos-Nyheim (2018). I was drawn to the project because it addresses the intersections of areas which have always interested me, reconciling my passion for art, literature, philosophy, and politics, and introducing me to legal debate which coincides with these themes. However, I had not imagined the potential that this publication would have within the academic and professional worlds; its impressive scope and varied contributions from students and experts alike led to the instant success of the first issue. I am now Head of Design and Online Strategy and I look forward to the release of the second issue this summer!

I have always had a strong interest in art, both as viewer and as artist, and I have tried to pursue this throughout my university career. On my year abroad, I have so far had the opportunity to study History of Art at the University of Málaga (and to make some art-world connections I hope will be very helpful in the future!). My ambition is to work in the creative industries, perhaps pursuing more design-related jobs or curatorial positions. As well as this, creating art, particularly collages, is one of my favourite ways to spend my time, and Cambridge has recently been a great source of inspiration, as you’ll see in my work Diptych, Trinity Lane.

Visit the Cambridge Journal of Law, Politics, and Art website: cjlpa.org

Thank you to Uma-Johanna for allowing us to reproduce her collages. You can see more of her design projects and artworks on her website: ujs23.myportfolio.com