Network 2022

THE ART OF SOUND

BAFTA-WINNING ALUMNUS KIM TAE HAK ON LIFE BEHIND THE SCENES

LEVELLING THE SCORES THE GROWING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN IN SPORT BASS CULTURE

THE IMPACT OF JAMAICAN MUSIC ON BRITISH CULTURE

Hello and welcome to the 2022 edition of Network magazine. We couldn’t be prouder of our alumni community and how much you amaze and impress us. Your achievements, big and small are featured throughout this issue of Network which is brilliantly illustrated by our BAFTA-winning cover star, Kim Tae Hak for his work as Sound Effects Editor on the 2021 documentary 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything. You can find out more

about his work and what it’s like to win a BAFTA in his story in this magazine.

You can also read about how several alumnae are pushing boundaries, creating and supporting inclusive space, and inspiring girls and women in the areas of gaming and sports. We are thrilled to share their inspiring stories of resilience and their advice on handling competition!

The University continues to refine its focus and adapt to the changing environment around us. Dr Peter Bonfield, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Westminster, shares an update on our refreshed strategy, Being Westminster 2022–2029, which emphasises our unique position as a global university with London energy. We are also proud to have been recognised for the third year in a row as a global frontrunner in our work towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for our focus on not only environmental areas but also social and economic aspects as well.

Finally, we are delighted to welcome the newest class of Westminster graduates to the alumni community

and would encourage you all –recent or distinguished graduate – to join Westminster Connect, westminsterconnect.org, to explore the various opportunities for you to offer or find professional support. We continue to be impressed and truly humbled by all the contributions you regularly make to not just the Westminster community but our wider society. A huge thank you to all of you who have so generously shared your achievements and given your time, expertise and donations to support our students and each other over the past year.

Enjoy this edition and if you have any feedback on how we can enhance the content of Network magazine for future issues, please do get in touch.

Alyssa Martin Head of Alumni Relations Maternity Cover

NETWORK

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2022

Editor: Jenny Stubberfield

Contributors: Julia Ross

Designer: Jessica Kate Tweed

Thanks to all alumni, colleagues, students and supporters who have contributed to this issue.

Cover Photography: Kacper Rudolf

Print: Gemini Print

Alumni Relations Office

University of Westminster

32–38 Wells Street

London W1T 3UW

T: +44 (0)20 3506 6245

E: alumni@westminster.ac.uk

CONTENTS

4 YOUR ALUMNI TEAM

An overview of our projects and the opportunities for you to get involved

6 BEING WESTMINSTER: OUR REFRESHED STRATEGY

An update from our Vice-Chancellor and President, Dr Peter Bonfield

8 NETWORK NEWS

The top news stories from across the Westminster community this year

16 DID YOU KNOW…?

A selection of Westminster’s recent research highlights

18 WORLD IN WESTMINSTER

Our Alumni Ambassadors share what it means to be part of our global community

20

LEVELLING THE SCORES

Alumnae reflect on how opportunities for women in sport have grown over the past decade

20

24 THE ART OF SOUND

Following his BAFTA win, Audio Production alumnus Kim Tae Hak shares what life is like behind the scenes

28

QUEST FOR INCLUSION

Alumna and gaming advocate Annabel Ashalley-Anthony is championing diversity in the video game industry

30 BASS CULTURE

The University’s Black Music Research Unit is illuminating the impact of Jamaican music on British Culture

34

BLUEPRINT FOR A GREENER WORLD

Westminster has been recognised as one of the global frontrunners in its work towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

38

WE CAN’T AFFORD TO JUST BUILD GREENER, WE MUST BUILD LESS

Why building greener may not be an effective solution for cutting global emissions

40 HOW FIGHTER JET PILOTS WITHSTAND HIGH G

Dr Bradley Elliott explains what happens to pilots’ bodies when they fly at breakneck speeds

42 CLASSNOTES

The latest updates and achievements from our alumni around the world

30

YOUR ALUMNI TEAM

As an alumnus of Westminster, you have many exclusive benefits, discounts and volunteering opportunities open to you, and plenty of ways to stay involved with the University. That’s where we – your Alumni Team – come in: to support your development, celebrate your achievements and keep you connected with the Westminster community.

TEAMWORK

Alumni are integral to the projects we run. Always keen to give back, graduates provide amazing support by sharing their time and expertise with students through

programmes.

an overview of some of these key programmes, and the progress we have made thanks to your support.

Here

GET IN TOUCH

to find out more about

to

involved,

WHAT COMES NEXT?

What Comes Next? is our new, course-aligned event series aimed at sharing the knowledge and experience of recent graduates. The events help undergraduate students better understand the variety of opportunities and career fields

to them after university. In our pilot series:

graduates volunteered as

cent of attendees

they feel better placed in

WHAT IT TAKES

The What it Takes event series features an array of exciting and innovative alumni speakers sharing their experience and advice on a diverse range of topics, focusing on employability and personal and professional development. Recent events have included What it Takes to Overcome Imposter Syndrome and What it Takes to Succeed in the Media Industry. Over the past five years:

• 46 What it Takes events have taken place

• 97 alumni have volunteered as speakers in the series

• 4,851 students and recent graduates have attended

WESTMINSTER WORKING CULTURES

Westminster Working Cultures (WWC) is a Universitywide initiative designed to enhance the employability of Westminster students, through utilising our global network of alumni and partners. The WWC programmes offer free, short-term travel opportunities to several international destinations, as well as local programmes in the UK. Since the launch of WWC in 2017:

• 240 alumni have hosted students

• 1,700 students have taken part in the programmes

• 82 per cent of students who have participated in the programmes have been from underrepresented backgrounds

FUTURE READY MENTORING

Our Future Ready Mentoring programmes give students and recent graduates the chance to connect with an experienced professional to help them develop skills, build their network and gain an insight into the world of work. There are three branches of mentoring, including: the Career Mentoring programme, the Ask a Mentor service and Group Mentoring sessions. In just the past year:

• 433 students attended a group mentoring session

709 mentoring relationships have been supported

• A total of 1,403 students and recent graduates benefitted from mentoring

BEING WESTMINSTER: OUR REFRESHED STRATEGY

The Being Westminster strategy is our guiding light, shaping and steering us collectively as a community of colleagues, students, alumni and partners. This year, we have looked at the strategy through a new lens, reviewing what has gone well and what we need to change, redefining our ambitions to create Being Westminster 2022–2029.

Since we created and launched Being Westminster in 2018, our strategy has set us fair to respond to local and global challenges and make progress in the areas that matter most to us. As alumni, you have supported us along the way. As ambassadors for the University and as dedicated volunteers and partners, you have played an invaluable role in shaping Westminster into who we are today.

But the world in which we operate is changing – with a different UK and world political landscape, the impact of the pandemic and the everincreasing role of technology.

These changed landscapes bring both challenges and opportunities, and the refined focus our refreshed strategy sets out will help us navigate our way through and towards a sustainable future together.

A GLOBAL UNIVERSITY WITH LONDON ENERGY

Work towards the refreshed strategy was ongoing for a year or more.

During that time, we analysed our progress, thought hard and worked together to identify where to go next. We held workshops to encourage discussion about our purpose and commitments, and a colleague survey to determine the most impactful ways we can be a supportive and sustainable institution.

We agreed, above all, that our University is a place where discoveries are made, barriers are broken, diversity is celebrated and where everyone is welcome.

The refreshed Being Westminster strategy was published in May, with objectives set out in four key areas. These include:

• Education

We will offer personalised education, underpinned but our inclusive curriculum.

• Research and Knowledge Exchange (REF)

We will maximise our positive impact for societies in the UK and around the world.

• Global Engagement

We will raise the international reputation and reach of the University.

• Employability

We will connect students and employers for graduate success.

The last of these – employability

– is where you, our alumni, are so important. We want to ensure that all of our students benefit from employability-led learning, and engagement with employers and industry. The programmes through which we will achieve this –Westminster Working Cultures, Future Ready Mentoring and alumni speaker events, such as What it Takes – all rely on your support and dedication as engaged volunteers. I am so very grateful for your support and look forward to working with you to achieve this objective.

Read the refreshed Being Westminster strategy here:

OUR UNIVERSITY IS A PLACE WHERE DISCOVERIES ARE MADE, BARRIERS ARE BROKEN, DIVERSITY IS CELEBRATED AND WHERE EVERYONE IS WELCOME.

OUR PRIORITIES

As a compassionate, progressive and responsible institution, we have determined the three key priorities that will inform and guide us in all we do.

Wellbeing

Without doubt, my number one priority has – and always will be – the wellbeing, health and safety of our students, my colleagues and all those within our University community.

As a University, we believe that everyone has the right to feel fulfilled and connected to a community of people who are passionate about making a positive impact on themselves, our workplaces, study spaces and those around us.

Inclusion

Westminster will be known as a place where everyone can bring their whole

self and know that they belong. As a responsible institution, we strive to ensure and to champion equality. As a progressive institution, we take pride in our diversity. As a compassionate institution, we commit to an inclusive culture that allows students and colleagues to reach their full potential.

Sustainable development

We take inspiration from the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in how we drive our actions, activities and governance across our University. As a community, we bring together our collective energies to play our part in addressing the climate crisis and inequalities to enable a more sustainable and socially just world. You can read more about the progress we have made towards the SDGs on pages 34–37 of Network magazine.

LOOKING FORWARD Launching our refreshed Being Westminster strategy is a significant milestone for us all, setting our course for a positive future together over the next seven years. All in our unique, special and distinctive Westminster ways.

It is our shared values and purpose, and collective energies and commitments, that have enabled us to navigate through the challenges of the last years. And it is this shared purpose and collective energy that will help us through the next period, in ways in which we continue to be authentic in staying true to who we are as a community.

All best wishes, Dr Peter Bonfield Vice-Chancellor and President

ALUMNA NOMINATED FOR TURNER PRIZE 2022

Former student Ingrid Pollard, who completed her PhD in 2017, has been nominated for the Turner Prize for her solo exhibition, Carbon Slowly Turning, a project which reflects on geological time in relation to human time.

Working mostly in photography and printmaking, Ingrid’s work focuses on Black experience and the British countryside, on nature, nurture and the construction of a sense of place. Her work also questions our relationship with the natural world and interrogates ideas such as Britishness, race and sexuality.

Ingrid is one of the 20 founders of Autograph ABP (Association of Black Photographers), a non-profit-making photographic arts agency which assists in the career development of black and culturally diverse photographers.

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER MAKES FURTHER PROGRESS ON BLACK LIVES MATTER COMMITMENTS

In the two years since setting out its Black Lives Matter Commitments, the 15-point plan is now firmly established within the University community with students, colleagues, alumni, businesses and higher education partners all playing their part.

One of the Commitments taking shape is a collaboration between students and colleagues to remove bias and improve balance in learning. The Pedagogies for Social Justice podcast and Decolonising the Curriculum Toolkit are co-created by students and colleagues, and encourage critical thinking.

Meanwhile, a new PhD Pathways initiative has been designed to provide peer-to-peer support for students from underrepresented backgrounds. Three Black PhD researchers received full funding to start their PhD in the School of Social Sciences in 2021/22. Extending that to the entire University, ten doctoral studentships funded by the Quintin Hogg Trust were created for UK students from the backgrounds least represented in academia –

Black British, Pakistani British and Bangladeshi British.

The University also continues to provide a platform for conversations and cross-institutional exchange.

During the 2022 conference

‘Toward an Anti-Racist University’, a panel of Westminster PhD students presented their paper on the topic of Researching While Black.

Speaking about Westminster’s progress towards the commitments, Professor Alexandra Hughes, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Global

Engagement and Employability, says:

“The implementation of our 15 Commitments is critical to our wider work on equality, equity, diversity and inclusion: itself a core priority, and one that is woven throughout our institutional strategy, Being Westminster.

“We are determined to continue to deliver against the Commitments, building on current initiatives and growing in new directions,” she adds.

“This work, at Westminster, enriches and empowers the lives of us all.”

Photo credit: Emile Holbar

NEW GENOME ENGINEERING LABORATORY INTERNSHIPS INTRODUCED THROUGH GENEROUS ALUMNUS DONATION

Westminster’s Genome Engineering Laboratory is launching a new Research Internship Programme, named Discover to Recover. It will give interns an opportunity to work alongside experts at the University’s School of Life Sciences’ lab as they aim to create novel CRISPR-based diagnostic platforms for infectious and non-infectious diseases.

The programme is made possible by a £10,000 donation from Westminster alumnus Raj Sitlani. Raj, who studied Modern Languages at the University before having a successful career in

finance, was struck by the passion of the Genome Engineering Lab team at an alumni event in 2018.

Speaking about his hopes for the Research Internship Programme, he said: “If I can help a few hard-working, bright students develop their research career paths or set them off on a better trajectory for something greater in the future, then I will feel that my support has been effective and worthwhile. I would like to think that for the selected students, my support can be critical in helping them stand out from the crowd.”

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER STUDENTS TAKE PART IN PROJECT TO INSTALL THE FIRST GREEN WALL ON CAMPUS

Students from the School of Architecture + Cities used funding from the Green Fund scheme to create the first hydroponic ‘Green Wall’ at the entrance to Westminster’s Marylebone Campus.

The Green Wall was funded through the Green Fund as a pilot scheme, with the aim of providing opportunities for student and staff co-creation under the umbrella of sustainability.

It also provides Westminster with a helpful tool to communicate its commitment towards creating a more circular and sustainable food system on campus.

FUTURE READY MENTORING SHORTLISTED FOR TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION AWARD

The University has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2022 Times Higher Education Awards in the Outstanding Support for Students category for its Future Ready Mentoring programme.

Designed as an inclusive programme with a range of opportunities to support mentors and mentees from every background, industry and career level, Future Ready Mentoring connects Westminster students with employers for graduate career success.

Recently, Future Ready Mentoring has seen a substantial expansion, from supporting just over 500 mentoring relationships in the 2018/2019 academic year to over 1,000 relationships just two years later.

FASHION ALUMNUS WINS THE 2022 LVMH PRIZE

Steven Stokey-Daley (Fashion Design BA, 2020) has been announced as the recipient of the 2022 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers.

Cate Blanchett, the Oscar-winning actress, announced the winner at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. The LVMH Prize comprises €300,000, plus a year of coaching from experts from the LVMH brands, which include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Loewe and Kenzo.

Steven graduated from Westminster in 2020, having already interned at Tom Ford and Alexander McQueen. Several garments in his graduate collection were made from deadstock fabrics donated by Sarah Burton, creative director at Alexander McQueen, through the BFC’s Colleges Council. Steven’s clothes quickly gained high-profile fans after debuting as part of the Westminster runway show at London Fashion Week in February 2020, including Harry Styles, who wore them in his Golden video, and actors Sir Ian McKellen and Josh O’Connor.

WESTMINSTER ALUMNI WIN BIG AT BRITISH COUNCIL’S STUDY UK ALUMNI AWARDS

Several Westminster alumni were named finalists and winners at the Study UK Alumni Awards 2021–22 at ceremonies around the world.

Study UK is a global campaign that promotes the UK as the first-choice study destination to international students. Award winners and finalists are leaders in their fields who have used their experience of studying at a UK university to make a positive contribution to their communities, professions and countries.

The Alumni Awards celebrate and showcase the value of UK higher education and raise the profile and reputation of UK alumni, their former universities and the whole of UK education.

The Culture and Creativity award was presented to Xie Yi, (Art and Media Practice MA, 2012) at the national

ceremony in China. Yi is a pioneer in the immersive entertainment industry in the UK and China, and a representative in China for the Society of London Theatre (SoLT).

The Social Action award was presented to Anil Singh Rana (Construction Project Management MSc, 2012) at the national ceremony in Mauritius. Anil has supported others in the construction industry through webinars and mentoring. Rockson Igelige (Entertainment Law LLM, 2012) from Nigeria and Kamila Alimdjanova (International Business and Management MA, 2013) from Uzbekistan were finalists in this category at their respective national ceremonies.

The Business and Innovation award was presented to Khurshid Kodirov (Business Administration BA, 2016), who

is also from Uzbekistan, at the national ceremony in Tashkent. Khurshid studied at Westminster International University (WIUT) in Tashkent and has been recognised for his work on building projects. Angelitta Trofimova, who studied the Economics with Finance BSc at WIUT, was a finalist in this category at the national ceremony.

Speaking about the number of Westminster winners and finalists at the national ceremonies, David Brooks, Alumni Relations Officer (Alumni Experience) said: “We’re thrilled that so many Westminster alumni around the world have been recognised for their achievements. We’re proud to be a truly international community, and this year’s finalists and winners demonstrate the range of successful paths that our alumni take after studying at Westminster.”

ALUMNA NAMED JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR 2022

Manisha Ganguly (Multimedia Journalism MA, 2017), who is currently a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Westminster, has been named Journalist of the Year 2022 by One Young World.

The Journalist of the Year Award recognises five of the world’s most outstanding journalists who are using their stories to create a positive impact on people in their communities and countries. The awards focus on candidates who have highlighted the importance of having diverse voices in the media.

Manisha is a multiple award-winning independent conflict journalist and filmmaker, who uses open-source techniques to investigate human rights abuses under conditions of war.

When asked what the award means to her, Manisha said: “To be recognised as a young leader in journalism is an immense honour, and I am so grateful to One Young World for it. On a personal level, it does massively help me cope with my imposter syndrome!”

WESTMINSTER RANKS IN TOP 10 PER CENT OF UNIVERSITIES WORLDWIDE

The University of Westminster has been ranked in the top 10 per cent of 19,788 universities worldwide, according to the 2022–23 edition of the Global 2000 list by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR).

CWUR publishes the most extensive rankings of global universities. The

rankings are unique in that they assess the quality of education, employability, faculty and research, instead of relying on surveys and university data submissions.

For example, the Education performance is measured by the number of a university’s alumni

who have won major academic distinctions relative to the university’s size. The Employability indicator is measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have held top executive positions at the world’s largest companies relative to the university’s size.

JON RONSON LAUNCHES FUNDRAISING EVENT SERIES FOR THE SOHO POLY PERFORMING ARTS SPACE

As part of Westminster’s fundraising efforts to restore the historic Soho Poly theatre, bestselling author Jon Ronson (Media Studies BA, 1988) and musician Emmy the Great (Contemporary Music BA, 2005) were invited to perform in the space.

The University called upon these leading artistic alumni to celebrate the heritage of the Soho Poly, and demonstrate its potential to guests from the arts industries and key Fitzrovian community members. Guests were able to witness first-hand the vision for the Soho Poly and how it needs support to be able to deliver crucial artistic

programmes, as well as provide a unique community space for the local area.

Talking about the event, Dr Matthew Morrison, Course Leader of the Creative Writing BA courses at Westminster, said: “This night was what the Soho Poly is about. Our principle is to ‘disrupt your everyday with arts and culture’, and we hope in the future the Soho Poly is the place you can come to do this. We want there to be no barriers to participation; it is all about providing plays and gigs for those who cannot always gain access to the arts.”

NETWORK

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER EXCELS IN RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK ASSESSMENT

Westminster research submitted to the Business and Management category also gained the second highest impact score nationally, and the University’s Politics and International Studies research scored fourth highest.

Westminster has been identified as the UK higher education institution which made the most significant impact in the field of Art and Design during the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 assessment period.

157 UK higher education institutions made submissions for REF assessment. These were evaluated by panels of experts who produced an overall quality profile for each submission.

Andrew Linn, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Westminster, said: “Supporting and developing our people and doing research that has tangible impact in the world are what we do and what we have always done, and it is gratifying that the quality of our work has been so roundly endorsed.

“I believe that if researchers are nurtured and valued and supported in their ambition by the institution, they will thrive and do great work. The evidence of the REF has borne this out.”.

GEORGE THE POET PERFORMS AT WESTMINSTER

Spoken word performer George the Poet performed at Westminster to celebrate Black History Month as part of the University’s Black History Year event series.

George the Poet is a London-born spoken word performer of Ugandan heritage. His innovative brand of musical poetry has won him critical acclaim both as a recording artist and social commentator and has seen his work broadcast to billions of people worldwide.

The Black History Year Group welcomed George the Poet to perform some of his spoken word pieces, where he also joined in with the audience discussions and answered any questions they had.

Speaking on the importance of the event, George the Poet said: “What excites me the most about this chapter in history is the conscious acknowledgment that there is an important conversation that has been live for a long time. I remember at the beginning of my career I was often met with the response that problems of today are more of a class nature as opposed to a racial nature. In a very short space of time the conversation has recalibrated.”

WESTMINSTER RESEARCHERS RECEIVE FUNDING TO STUDY THE IMPACT OF LONG COVID WITHIN ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS

Led by the University of Westminster, the new research, titled ‘Hearing from the unheard: impact of long COVID in minority ethnic groups in the UK’, will reveal the lived experiences of people with long COVID specifically in ethnic minority groups.

The researchers will explore people’s symptoms, healthcare, wider support

and treatment needs, the impact of long COVID on their daily lives and challenges to accessing support.

Funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the aim of the research is to improve the health and wellbeing of users of the NHS and social care services who have long COVID.

WESTMINSTER AWARDED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE GOLD MARK FOR SECOND YEAR

A year on from becoming the first London university to be awarded the Social Enterprise Gold Mark, the University’s award has been renewed for a second year.

The Social Enterprise Gold Mark is an internationally recognised accreditation, which provides an independent guarantee that the University of Westminster is operating a genuine social enterprise committed to creating positive social change.

Since being awarded the Gold Mark, Westminster is already building on its achievement by developing a range of ambitious social enterprise projects. Through partnership, training and public engagement, the University aims to support the social enterprise activities and requirements of communities and organisations in London and beyond, at a challenging moment when the needs of society must feature in any business model.

Photo credit: Daniel Samray/Shutterstock

DID YOU KNOW...?

Researchers at the University of Westminster ask the questions that expand beyond existing boundaries. They are pioneers of impact-driven, world-leading research, which furthers our University’s mission to enable people from every background to reach their full potential. Here are five of the discoveries they made this year.

MENUS NEED TO BE AT LEAST 75 PER CENT VEGETARIAN FOR MEAT EATERS TO CHOOSE PLANTBASED FOOD

Researchers from the University of Westminster have found that meat eaters are significantly more likely to choose vegetarian meals when they make up the majority of food offered.

The study, led by Dr Beth Parkin, Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience, randomised participants to menus that contained different ratios of meat and vegetarian dishes to determine exactly how much meat availability is needed to promote sustainable choices.

People who usually ate meat shifted their choice to vegetarian food only when menus were 75 per cent vegetarian, but not when 50 per cent or 25 per cent of items were vegetarian. This suggests meat eaters can change their preferences when given enough vegetarian options to choose from, yet a large proportion of these options are needed to change fixed habits of consuming meat.

LUCKY GENES COULD HELP PROTECT PEOPLE WITH OBESITY FROM SOME DISEASES

In a study funded by Diabetes UK, researchers from the University of Westminster found that having certain genes can protect people with obesity from some lifechanging ailments.

Fat stored under the skin is considered less harmful than fat stored around the organs, and the genes we are born with determine where the fat is stored. Scientists refer to this as having ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable’ adiposity.

Researchers found that those with ‘unlucky’ fat genes, meaning they store higher levels of fat everywhere, including under the skin, liver and pancreas, are associated with higher risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes.

The team found that of the 37 diseases they tested, 12 – including coronary artery disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes – were directly related to the genes that determine whether or not a person has ‘favourable adiposity’.

NEARLY HALF OF PHD STUDENTS CONSIDER DEVELOPING A MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEM ‘NORMAL’

A new study led by the University of Westminster shows that 42 per cent of PhD students consider developing a mental health problem a ‘normal’ part of the PhD process. Researchers also found that more than a third of doctoral researchers considered ending or taking a break from their studies due to poor mental health.

The new collaborative research, which is the biggest ever controlled study on PhD student mental health and the first of its kind based in the UK, surveyed over 3,000 PhD students nationwide. Researchers

discovered that compared to working professionals, PhD students are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems, and found initial evidence that PhD studies might be causative of this.

These new findings provide an evidence-based mandate for universities and funders to reflect upon practices related to doctoral researcher training and mental health.

T HE APPLICATION PROCESS FOR THE WINDRUSH COMPENSATION SCHEME IS TOO COMPLEX

The Windrush Justice Clinic consisting of the University of Westminster’s Legal Advice Clinic and its partners has carried out research into the unmet need for legal advice for people making claims under the Windrush Compensation Scheme.

The preliminary research report, titled ‘The Windrush Compensation Scheme: Unmet Need for Legal Advice’, found an acute need for more legal advice and help for claimants during the application process.

The Windrush Justice Clinic was set up in October 2020 to support people affected by the Windrush scandal to make successful claims for compensation. The report reveals that the application process for the compensation scheme is too complex for most claimants to complete alone, and the limited support provided by the Home Office is insufficient.

PATIENTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO DISCUSS STIGMATISING HEALTH CONDITIONS WITH AI CHATBOTS

Researchers at the University of Westminster have found that patients are more likely to discuss highly stigmatising health conditions, such as sexually transmitted infections, with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot compared to a healthcare professional.

The researchers aimed to assess how perceived stigma and severity of various health issues are associated with the acceptability for three sources of health information and consultation: an automatic chatbot, a GP, or a combination of both.

Although healthcare professionals are perceived as the most desired sources of health information, the new research shows that chatbots may be useful for sensitive health issues in which disclosure of personal information is challenging.

Dr Tom Nadarzynski, Senior Lecturer and lead author of the study, said: “Our research finds that patients value the opinion of healthcare professionals, therefore implementation of AI in healthcare may not be suitable in all cases, especially for serious illnesses.”

Our university is one of the most diverse and international higher education institutions in the UK, with alumni, colleagues and students from a range of communities, cultures and countries.

To spotlight the many ways in which Westminster is connected to the global community, in March the University hosted World in Westminster – a celebratory, international festival. With three days of events and activities – from Arabic language taster sessions to the art of Caribbean cooking – we showcased our heritage and rich cultural diversity.

Our alumni contribute hugely to this diversity, with graduates living in 180 different countries worldwide. To recognise this, our international Alumni Ambassadors also played a part in the festival. They called in from around the world to inspire us with their thoughts on diversity, inclusivity and what it means to them to be part of the global Westminster community.

Here are some of the highlights from our conversations:

WHAT DOES DIVERSITY MEAN TO YOU?

Shriya Bhagwat (Media Management MA, 2007) – New Zealand

“Diversity to me means being respectful of other people but also being respectful and truthful to yourself about who you are. So it’s as much inward-looking as it is outward-looking.”

Norman Pegden (International Business and Management MA, 2014) – Brazil

“To me, it means understanding and respecting different cultures, different identities, different countries. And there is no easier way to do this than meeting people from different backgrounds.”

Edma Lawer (International Relations and Democratic Politics MA, 2018) – Ghana

“Everybody deserves the same opportunity regardless of where they are from, regardless of what language they speak, regardless of what food they eat. We are human beings first.”

WHAT IMPACT DID STUDYING ABROAD HAVE ON YOUR CAREER?

Alia Mahmoud Abul Eyoun (MBA, 2016) – Egypt

“I believe it definitely helped me learn more about people’s cultures and understanding their preferred way of doing business. It helps grow your crosscultural communication skills. It improves certain skills such as leadership and communication, and it helps you grow your sense of independence.”

Melanie Marechal (Communications MA, 2011) – France

“Studying abroad helps you be curious, meet new people and not be afraid of things you don’t know. It definitely improves who you are and how you see the world.”

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF STUDYING AT A DIVERSE UNIVERSITY?

Verónica Posada Alvarez (Art and Visual Culture MA, 2017) – Colombia

“One of my best friends is from Vietnam, another one from Brazil, another one from India. Being at a diverse university engages you into a sort of transcultural life.”

Adelaide Arthur (Multimedia Journalism (Broadcast) MA, 2016) – Ghana

“It is always nice to have people from various backgrounds and various cultures. When you are together you will be amazed at what you learn from each other. I had some good friends from India, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. We are still communicating.”

WHAT IS A FACT ABOUT YOUR HOME COUNTRY THAT WE MIGHT NOT KNOW?

Célia Kitenge (Spanish and English BA, 2015) – Belgium

“Belgium is the fries country. I wonder why British people call them French fries? They are Belgian! Also, Brussels is the HQ for the European Union. So while in Belgium there are three national languages – French, Dutch and German – English can also be heard in the streets in Brussels because more and more Europeans are coming to work in this European capital.”

Norman: “It’s crazy to think about, but São Paulo state – the state in which I live – is the size of England. And São Paulo, the city, is the largest city in the southern hemisphere. Which shows just how massive Brazil is!”

Adelaide: “Jollof is a really nice meal made of rice – it’s very delicious. And our bothers and sisters in Nigeria are always saying that they prepare the best jollof rice, which is not true! Because Ghanaians make the best jollof rice. So we’ve been having this jollof war for years now. It’s rather unfortunate that they don’t agree with us!”

Verónica: “Colombia is one of the top five most biodiverse countries in the world. It’s amazing because we have the Amazon, we have the Andes, we have two oceans – so you have everything from beaches to snow.”

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER?

Shriya: “The University of Westminster is a really good university – it is very inclusive. It is full of very kind people. It is a place where I think you’re allowed to fail. If you feel safe to fail, you’re more likely to succeed.”

Célia: “The University celebrates things like Diwali and Black History Year. It is really aware that they have students from different backgrounds, and they celebrate these differences.”

To find out more about our Alumni Ambassadors and how to contact those in your region, visit: westminster.ac.uk/ international-alumni

Watch the full World in Westminster video interviews with our Alumni Ambassadors:

Students, staff and alumni taking part in our World in Westminster festival

LEVELLING THE SCORES

AS THE LIONESSES TRIUMPH AT EURO 2022, WESTMINSTER ALUMNAE REFLECT ON HOW FAR OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN IN SPORT HAVE ADVANCED OVER THE PAST DECADE, AND HOW MUCH FARTHER THERE IS STILL TO GO.

“It is sort of lovely we’re speaking today.”

It’s the day after England’s Lionesses beat Spain and made it into the Euros’ semi-finals. Women’s football has fully captured the nation’s imagination, inspiring a generation of young girls in its wake.

Sue Thearle (Film, Video and Photographic Arts BA, 1988), alumna of BBC Sport, Match of the Day and the University of Westminster,

was once one of those young girls dreaming of playing football for England. She was, briefly, the only girl on her primary school football team, in the late 1970s, after her headmaster saw her playing in the playground and decided she had to be on the team.

“And so I was, for two matches, and scored – in both of them, I might add,” she says. “But the parents of the boy who I replaced complained quite

vociferously and caused a stink, so it meant that they took me out of the team. I was really outraged by that.”

This sense of outrage stayed with her, and a common thread of her career path has been breaking down barriers for women, and also sticking it – just a little bit – to the patriarchy.

“I wanted to work in places where there weren’t many women,” she says. “I don’t know why – I spotted it quite young, and it annoyed me for

absolutely no reason – I think it was a sense of injustice, actually.”

More than a decade later, Sue got the chance to play on another football team – the Millwall Lionesses – and this time, she was the one who decided to leave, when her career in TV sports journalism took off.

“It was a really hard decision – it really was,” she says. “There were England players in the Millwall side, and I felt like I would really thrive there. I have no clue how far I would have gone, I genuinely don’t. But it is something – even now, all these years later – that I still think about.”

With a sports commentating career spanning two decades, journalist and presenter Kait Borsay (Multimedia Journalism (Broadcast) MA, 2016) has featured across talkRADIO, ITN, BBC radio and Sky Sports – to name a few. She also co-founded and co-presents the iconic football podcast The Offside Rule. Presented by herself, Lynsey Hooper and Hayley McQueen, The Offside Rule offers a female-centric football punditry which was largely absent when she and Lynsey, a fellow Sky Sports presenter, founded it in 2012.

“We were just fed up with feeling like we didn’t have an outlet for our voice,” Kait says. “We couldn’t see people like us expressing opinions. You could see people like us maybe presenting Sky Sports News or

presenting the sports bulletin. But you couldn’t really see anyone have an authoritative opinion on the game.”

It is fitting, perhaps, that this alternative voice came through the then largely untested medium of podcasting – which many established news outlets were suspicious of at the time (one of the Sky Sports “big bosses” saw podcasts as a “passing fad”, Kait recalls). The wordplay of The Offside Rule perfectly captures women’s standing in football commentary ten years ago – though Kait says she isn’t sure everybody got this in the beginning!

“I think originally people thought The Offside Rule was a podcast about women’s football,” she laughs. “‘Oh, these three women are talking about football – it must be about women’s football! That’s the only thing that women could possibly know about, right?’”

Kait joined Westminster’s Multimedia Journalism (Broadcast) MA in 2014, when she was heavily pregnant and balanced the course part-time, around childcare (“It was probably quite a mental thing to do, now that I look back on it, but it was fun!”). At this

Kait Borsay

stage, The Offside Rule already had a cult following, though – just like podcasts themselves – it has since exploded in popularity. Westminster’s MA gave Kait a lot more confidence in transitioning this “side hustle” onto the main stage.

“We have a production company,” she says. “I would have been really wary about having a production company had I not done the course –because I learnt really valuable skills about how production works, not just stuff in front of the camera.”

was poorly resourced because all the funding was poured into boys’ rugby. I’m just trying to think, it was about ten years ago, I’d say. Now we’re looking at it in a completely different time.”

Olivia also dreamed of becoming a professional footballer.

“That was honestly the goal,” she says. “And I wonder – genuinely – if I had more confidence and there was more funding – genuinely, where things could have gone.”

After completing her Psychology MA at Westminster in 2020, Olivia spent two years as the Vice President of Activities at the University’s Students’ Union. Throughout her tenure, which has just ended, she has made it a central focus to encourage all students identifying as women to embrace sports at all levels. From participation in the national This Girl Can initiative, to introducing women-only gym sessions.

“It actually started with just a women-only area and we wanted to make sure that this included anyone that identifies as a woman,” Olivia says of the women-only sessions at Westminster’s Regent Street Gym. “Because we know that gym intimidation is a major issue for women particularly. It’s a lot harder for women to step into the gym because of confidence – especially in maledominated spaces.”

very clear that we weren’t being as inclusive as possible and as welcoming as possible. So, I wanted to take that into my role.”

Finances are also exclusionary –particularly for a student body like Westminster’s, with such a mix of socio-economic backgrounds. To tackle this, Westminster removed the joining fee for all sports teams last year. The University has also begun offering a range of free drop-in activities and brought in new funding and support for elite athletes.

WE COULDN’T SEE PEOPLE LIKE US EXPRESSING OPINIONS.

Three decades after Sue was ejected from her primary school football team, Olivia Ponsford (Psychology MA, 2020), was starting secondary school in Portsmouth.

A keen footballer from an early age, she was surprised to find the school had no football team at all – for girls or boys.

After she lobbied the PE department in year 7, the school did establish a girls’ football team – but it was headed by a science teacher.

“The science teacher was amazing,” Olivia says. “But ultimately there was only so much she could do. The team

The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Peter Bonfield (who Olivia says was “amazing” on the issue), not only supported this scheme but pushed it to the next level. As a result, there are now two hour-long sessions per week where the entire gym is reserved exclusively for those identifying as women.

Olivia’s own past experience of playing football also inspired the introduction of sports hijabs last year, as part of the This Girl Can initiative.

“Someone came up to me in my team I was captaining and said, ‘No one here looks like me’” she recalls. “She was a Muslim female – she was

“It’s for everyone but it really gives our female athletes a chance to get funded,” Olivia says. “We give them all the support – psychological support and physical support – to get them to the elite place. And for some people, it’s made such a difference in their competitions.

“I think we are on a different path to where we were about ten years ago,” she adds. “And hopefully younger generations who are joining universities now can see that.”

Whether you’re playing sport or have the audacity to show your face on television and talk about it, the path has rarely been easy and the reception is not always welcoming.

“Looking back there were just no women,” Sue says. “I mean, I used to go to press boxes and I would be the only woman – it just irritated me then. I suppose it was quite uncomfortable.

Olivia Ponsford

Most of the chaps there were very nice. Some were resistant – there’s no doubt – and didn’t feel like you needed to be there. And they would quiz you relentlessly about your football knowledge. And after a while they would have to go ‘Oh, well she knows football.’”

“I don’t think we were deliberately being marginalised,” Kait says.

“But by association, by continuing with a mostly all-male line-up for various things, women were totally not getting the opportunities or they were there as a plus-one. They were there to look good next to the guy. They were there because people who listened to the show or watched this channel quite liked to look at an attractive female. It was just all wrong. It was all wrong.”

Though there is still a lot of work to be done, the influx of respected female voices pouring into sports journalism is a whole new world, Sue and Kait both agree. And the rise of women’s football is a crowning achievement on this.

“Women’s Euros are absolutely shaking everything up,” Olivia says, adding: “It’s extremely inspiring – I

think empowering is probably the word. Just knowing that actually in the future generation there could be more equality. We’re still a long way off from equal pay and things like that in football. But if you just look at the coverage now, it’s so different to ten years ago. And actually, I think there are now more visible role models for children growing up and I think it’s an incredible time, really. I mean I’m in love with the Euros, it’s great!” She laughs.

Kait feels women’s football has also broadened opportunities for female sports commentators who were traditionally overlooked.

“The rise of women’s football definitely has helped, because there are now more platforms for women to have knowledge within the game,” she says.

The mainstream appeal of women’s football is an important factor in this, she says, as it avoids simply pigeonholing women.

“I’m glad it’s not just women presenting women’s football and I’m glad that women are presenting men’s football – I think it all kind of worked together.”

Since completing her MA, Kait has given her time to a variety of the University’s alumni activities – including the Westminster Working Cultures Programme.

“I think it’s my responsibility, as an older female broadcaster, to make sure that young students, young women and men, are given access to advice that I may not have had,” she says.

Kait says she always feels inspired by the drive and creativity of Westminster’s current students.

“I get something out of it as well,” she says, adding: “It kind of gives me lots of encouragement about where the world is going and where our young people are going. But it also fills me full of ideas and interesting perspectives and broadens my view of the world as well.”

So what advice would Kait and Sue give to women trying to break into sports journalism?

“I’d say that there are loads more opportunities for you now – which is great! – and so take them,” Kait says. “Think about getting yourself out there. I mean, if you’re applying for jobs and you’re not getting anything back, start to create your own content. It’s such a predictable thing for me to say but it really helps. Go out and film stuff outside Chelsea, go out and do podcasting, go out and grab some interviews.”

“Tenacity is the key – and persistence,” Sue says. “And a little bit of a thick skin – by having a thick skin what I don’t mean is being treated badly. That’s never OK! I don’t mean like that. I mean you will have setbacks.”

The Offside Rule has a female writers’ mentorship for female journalism graduates keen to pursue a career in sports journalism. Since its 2020 inception, mentees have gone on to work for EFL, CNN and the Athletic. The opportunities are there, Kait says, but the competition is fierce!

“You still need to be plucky,” she says. “I don’t think anyone’s just going to be handed a brilliant broadcasting job.”

Sue Thearle

THE ART OF SOUND

Having won his first BAFTA TV Craft award, Audio Production alumnus Kim Tae Hak shares what life is like behind the scenes.

“At the end of the day, it’s not my film, it’s the director’s,” says Westminster alumnus Kim Tae Hak (Audio Production MA, 2009). “All I’m trying to do is bring that to life; make it more dramatic, maximise the emotions.”

For some time now, documentary film has been taking on a life of its own. In a world where fact is solidly weirder than fiction, big and small screen documentaries are growing steadily more creative, more cinematic and – thanks to modern-day streaming services – far more accessible. Documentaries have become, well, larger than life.

Among the most memorable recent titles – Three Identical Strangers (2018) tells the tale of three triplets who stumbled upon one another, at the age of 18; true crime docuseries Don’t F*ck With Cats (2019), directed by Mark Lewis, tells of the online hunt for an internet killer.

At the heart of both of these dark and evocative narratives are the soundtracks – taking viewers through the feelings, shocks and murmurs of the storytelling. Both of these soundscapes were created by Kim

and his team at leading postproduction business, Molinare.

And when it comes to the cinematic bent of the modern documentary, Kim promises there is much more to come.

“Believe me – demand from clients is getting bigger and bigger,” he says. “Since I started in this industry, over the last 12 years, the budget is going up and clients are demanding more and more. We all want to make this just as cinematic as The Crown.”

During his time in Molinare’s documentary arm, Kim has worked on a variety of critically acclaimed projects. But it was his role as Sound Effects Editor on the 2021 documentary 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, which has just won Kim his first BAFTA.

“This was teamwork by the way,” Kim says. “I mean, it’s not just me. It was a team who won the BAFTA.”

Winning the award was a complete shock to all of them, he explains – a bit like being in a film, in fact.

“It’s like a film frame that passes through really quickly,” Kim says. “So,

I’ve got these photographic memories – we got our names announced, we won it, we went onto the platform and made a brief speech and then went backstage and collected the award, got the press photos, and then after that, I think about half an hour later, ‘Oh, this is real, you know.’”

The Apple TV docuseries 1971 catalogues a seminal year in musical history – including the likes of the Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell and Elton John – alongside the tumultuous period in social and geopolitical history which fed and surrounded it. There was the Vietnam War, the tail-end of hippie counterculture in America colliding with the incoming Nixon administration. Marvin Gaye’s seminal ‘What’s Going On’ track and John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ – two of the many, many moments in the substantial 1971 back catalogue –encapsulate the complex, fearful, hopeful mood of the era.

Even as a fan of much of the music featured, Kim says working on the project taught him a lot about where that music came from and the world in which it landed.

I ACTUALLY KNOCKED AT THE DOOR OF EACH POSTPRODUCTION FACILITY.

“I knew obviously about the music of the Beatles and Marvin Gaye – I always knew their music and listened to their music,” he says. “But I didn’t really know about how they relate and what

was the connection between the music and the problems occurring in society at that time.”

All the while, as Kim and his team worked on the documentary, the world

was going through a fresh spate of unimaginable events.

“It was at a time when the nation had completely shut down,” Kim says. “So, it was quite difficult for all of us, you know, just trying to get into the office.”

As they tried to get the project done, Kim and the rest of the team were also learning how to use Zoom and how to work as a team while also social distancing.

“Somehow we just had to adapt to this,” Kim says. “But we did well – I mean, the show must go on.”

Two years on, the team received a coveted NAACP nomination (“we were really happy with the nomination, but then we didn’t win it – we didn’t think we were going to win”). A few months later, they learnt they were nominated for the BAFTA Craft – an award recognising the achievements of those working behind the scenes – and the rest is history.

It is perhaps fitting that Kim won the award for his work on this iconic music documentary, because it was music which brought him to where he is today.

When he was considering university courses, he was initially unsure of what path he should take.

“But I always liked music,” he says. “I came from a music background and so it was quite a natural choice for me to do music technology – I didn’t want to do something classical.”

When he left South Korea to study for a BSc in Music and Sound Technology at the University of Portsmouth, it would still be some time before Kim considered TV and film post-production as a career path.

“I didn’t know anything about the film and TV industry.”

After graduating, Kim moved to London to study the University of

Westminster’s Audio Production MA in 2008.

“At the time, the Audio Production course was quite famous in London, when I was doing research,” Kim says. “I lived in Portsmouth for nearly four years, so it was really time for me to move on to London and just to see what was going on.”

During the course, Kim appreciated both the cutting-edge technology available and the experience of Westminster’s staff.

“I remember that Mike, who was one of our lecturers, was signed up with Sony Productions as a musician already,” he says. “So, it was great, you know – one of our lecturers was signed up as an artist with Sony,” he laughs.

Some of Kim’s best memories of the course are – perhaps understandably – the hours he spent down in the studios, making use of the “industry-level” facilities.

“We just used to stay day and night working hard, but at the same time just enjoying practising,” he recalls. “And then we just – you know – nipped out for a drink at the student union bar or the pub around there, or went to gigs together. Just an amazing experience really.”

He particularly enjoyed his final project on the course, which –presciently – entailed creating a soundtrack to a short film.

“That was quite memorable for me – a huge challenge at the time.”

When he finally set his sights on film and TV post-production, the next challenge was chasing down opportunities, in this largely opaque field.

“I have to say it’s not the same as now, 14 years ago.”

At a time when LinkedIn was a niche past-time for a handful of IT recruitment

consultants, Kim chose instead to draw up a list of post-production companies and hand-deliver his CV to them.

“I actually knocked at the door of each post-production facility.”

A few months later, he had two responses – one was from Molinare. From work experience, he progressed to runner and then to Sound Designer in 2010 – within months of completing his MA. He was then named Dubbing Mixer in 2021.

As an Asian man, Kim is acutely aware of the diversity issue in the industry as a whole.

“This is an industry filled with white British men usually. There have been a lot more female producers, directors, recording engineers, sound mixers and sound engineers – and also from all different ethnic backgrounds. So, there’s been a lot of improvement as opposed to 20, 30 years ago. It’s got a lot better. I think there still needs to be more.”

Despite the stellar trajectory his own career has taken, Kim still admits to

having his own moments of self-doubt.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he says. “When I don’t get opportunities, when I don’t get a project that I expected to, when I don’t get an opportunity and it goes to my colleague – I sometimes think, ‘Did I not get that opportunity because of where I come from?’”

“I was lucky enough to have my line manager,” Kim adds. “He picked me up when I was a runner. He trained me... he was basically only looking at talent.”

When asked what advice he has for new graduates, he hammers it down to three crucial components: be patient, take every opportunity that comes along and – above all – be proactive.

“After my graduation, I went out there, I handed out my resume so that’s how I got the call,” he says. “I don’t mean that students need to go to company receptions for that. However, use all those platforms – social media, LinkedIn. Go to the forums, events –and then build the relationships and drop an email – that’s how you get it started.”

QUEST FOR INCLUSION

Alumna, author and gaming advocate Annabel AshalleyAnthony (Creative Writing with English Literature BA, 2012) is championing diversity in the video game industry.

“The first game I ever played was probably Diddy Kong Racing on Nintendo 64,” Annabel recounts, nostalgically.

“It just reminds me of spending time with my siblings and my cousins. Despite our differences – while you’re gaming, you’re all just gamers.”

This capability that video games have, to level the playing field and bring people from all backgrounds together, has stuck with Annabel and now informs much of the work she does. Today, she is Founder of Melanin Gamers (MG), an online gaming community that promotes inclusion and diversity in the gaming industry.

“I got into gaming because of the story. I really like reading, and gaming gave me a similar sort of feeling. Some of the narrative games are so rich!”

It was this passion for fiction which led Annabel to study Creative Writing

at Westminster. Now a published author, she credits much of her writing talent to what she learnt on the course.

“It really changed the way I wrote. I was taught that you can almost trigger inspiration, so you don’t have to wait to be inspired to write. Because of that, I can now write whenever – which is an invaluable skill. Not just with my creative writing, but with articles too –which I write for Melanin Gamers.”

But gaming is not always fun and games!

“Online experiences can be very, very toxic,” Annabel says, referring to the darker side of gaming: the unregulated bullying or ‘trolling’, sustained by gamers’ anonymity, which has become a largely accepted – or at least expected – part of online gaming.

“Bullying is one of the reasons I started MG,” she adds. “When my brother was getting bullied online, he

was told he should ‘just grow thick skin’. But why is it the victim who has to change, while the bully gets away with it forever?”

Four years on, and Melanin Gamers has over 4,000 members.

“It’s a safe space. It’s free to join, but you have to apply. So at least you know that whoever you’re playing with within the community is OK – not someone who is racist.

“I just want online to be fun, and for people to be held accountable.”

Fortunately, thanks to campaigning from communities like MG, the environment and perceptions of what games, gamers and gaming should look like is shifting. Ten years ago there were few iconic female characters beyond the highly sexualised Lara Croft, for example. But nowadays, more realistic representations are gradually being developed.

Annabel (left) hosting an event with Melanin Gamers for International Women’s Day

“There are some games that now do it really well,” says Annabel, who has put up with years of either no Black female characters or negative tropes and damaging stereotypes. In many games, she explains, a Black character’s race is pretty much the extent of their personality.

“Do developers think all Black people act in a certain way? It seems so strange to me. Which is why, when it’s done well, you just gravitate towards it.”

As an added bonus to the growing in-game diversity, Annabel, a keen cosplayer, is finally able to dress up as characters who she can relate to.

“It means so much to be able to do that – to finally be able to cosplay a character who looks like me.”

It’s one thing to achieve more diversity in the games – but how about behind the scenes?

“It’s getting better. Lots of initiatives have been set up to tackle the lack of diversity in the industry. But it’s still very much a ‘boys’ club’.

“We know there are women creating games, but they don’t get the promotion they deserve. They tend to be more ‘indie’ games, rather than the triple-A releases you will see plastered on billboards. So it is a twofold problem: there aren’t as many women as there should be, or people of colour, and where there are, they’re not being promoted as much.”

This is where Melanin Gamers is really making a difference. In addition to being a safe community, they are an active force for encouraging diversity in the industry from the ground up, as Annabel explains:

“Firstly, we do panel talks at conventions, colleges and schools on different subjects, from unconscious bias

in the gaming industry to how content creation is a real job.

“We also do showcases – we interview industry insiders on our podcast and on our YouTube channel to promote the work they are doing.

“Thirdly, we host gaming tournaments and networking events, as safe spaces for people to come together, game and network.”

However, much of making the industry accessible is about changing how it is perceived and explaining that it offers viable career options.

When we were speaking, Annabel and the Melanin Gamers team had just finished hosting the finals of the Apex Legends 2022 Championships. The prize fund for which was a staggering $2m.

“There is a lot of money to be made in gaming – don’t let anyone tell you differently! There is more money in gaming than in the film and music industries combined. It just doesn’t get the respect, somehow.”

This is something Melanin Gamers are trying to change through their

panel talks, and by speaking to parents.

“Any parent just wants a stable career for their child. Like a doctor or a lawyer. But gaming? That conversation gets shut down immediately.”

But there are thousands of career opportunities in the industry, Annabel explains: from writing to animating to marketing.

“It’s something that we have to keep talking about, so the industry will be open to all.”

So progress towards diversifying the industry, although slow, is being achieved. But not everyone is willing to embrace positive change.

Melanin Gamers’ latest campaign, The Watch, aims to tackle bullying in online multiplayer game Call of Duty, by improving the reporting mechanisms for unchecked racist behaviour.

“It’s gained a lot of traction and we’ve had some good feedback. But we’ve also had a lot of bad feedback,” Annabel admits. “Some players are not happy to be called out, and the trolls are doubling down because they feel like they are losing their space.”

And they are. Thanks to the tireless work of Melanin Gamers, with Annabel at the fore, the world of video games is becoming more inclusive so that everyone – regardless of race, gender or background – can reap the many benefits of gaming.

Annabel can finally cosplay a character who looks like her: Lifeline from Apex Legends

WE KNOW THERE ARE WOMEN CREATING GAMES, BUT THEY DON’T GET THE PROMOTION THEY DESERVE.

BASS CULTURE

In a collaborative research project, the University’s Black Music Research Unit is mapping the undocumented musical experiences of marginalised communities in the UK, and illuminating the impact of Jamaican music on British culture.

Ska, reggae, drum‘n’bass, ragga, trip hop, dubstep, grime. None of these musical genres would exist in Britain without Jamaican music. Not to mention its influence on the most unlikely musical acts, such as Eric Clapton and The Clash. Names like Linton Kwesi Johnson, Pauline Black and Janet Kay, may mean little to many modern-day British music fans, but without their influence, today’s UK Top 40 would be unrecognisable.

“It’s not that we’re unaware of Black music in Britain, but we tend to approach it moment by moment –whatever’s popular – we’ll talk about that,” says Mykaell Riley, former musician and musical producer, and founder of Westminster’s Black Music Research Unit (BMRU). “We don’t see it as a long narrative – a constant, important catalyst of British popular music.”

It is this central misconception and the injustices it creates, that lies at heart of the BMRU’s first research project, Bass Culture. Named after Johnson’s 1980 album, Bass Culture is the first major study of the history and impact of Jamaican-influenced music in the UK. Spanning over six decades, it redresses not only the way Black British music has been pigeonholed but also what this reductive treatment has come to symbolise within the broader marginalisation of Black British culture and communities.

“People overseas broadly think there are about five Black people living in this country,” says Jacqueline Springer, a researcher on the Bass Culture project. “That we all know each other, that we may all be related. And some of the worst people in this country feel that we’ve only been here for a couple of years. And so, it’s important that you have research projects that are pursued

with passion but have academic rigour, because they disprove the racist connotations that people who are smaller in number have no bearing and no rights here.”

An acclaimed music journalist, Jacqueline also co-founded the events curation duo Union Black, which focuses on the intersection between music, fashion and cultural and racial identity (she currently curates the V&A’s Africa & Diaspora: Performance). Jacqueline and Mykaell have always converged in their dual creative and academic interests. He had talked about the Bass Culture project for years, Jacqueline recalls, and when it finally came to fruition and he asked for her help, she jumped at the chance.

“It’s a privilege, you know.”

In a past life, Mykaell was a founding member of Grammy Award-winning reggae band Steel Pulse; he would later make his name as a music producer,

WHETHER YOU CONSIDER DRUM ‘N’ BASS OR TRIP HOP OR GRIME – IT’S A RESISTANCE TO THE INDUSTRY AND YOUR ABILITY TO EXIST AS A BLACK BRITISH MUSICIAN.

This brand of exploitation is a common problem within the music industry. But there are also recurring themes which are distinct to Black British musicians.

larger images. So, the majority of the exhibition was exactly that.”

Replacing the “postage-stamp” images of the past with giant supersized images carries deep symbolism.

“One person said to me – ‘I’ve never seen this image,’” Mykaell recalls. “Then they corrected themselves and said ‘I’ve never seen an image of myself this size. This means I have been successful.’”

representing the likes of Soul II Soul, Jamiroquai and Björk. As a musicianturned-producer-turned-academic, Mykaell understood, from the outset, the importance of speaking to both audiences, in the Bass Culture project.

“I’ve got an academic audience and I’ve got the industry and I’ve got the public,” he says. “Three quite disparate communities – and I’m trying to tell a story that is similar to all of those communities but distinct to the individual communities.”

Bass Culture has crafted an incredible mass of archive material – including video interviews, photography and physical artefacts – communicated through outputs including a documentary film, an exhibition and even a podcast.

Initially, many artists he approached were reluctant to take part, Mykaell tells me, following years of racism and exploitation by record companies. Even issues like signing contracts were rife with difficulties, because in the past, “this might be translated in lost royalties – or contracts they were signing they thought they meant one thing but turned out to be another.”

“The treatment of Black artists is complex, because, depending on how you look at it, it appears the same, but actually it’s not,” Mykaell says. “There’s a history where they haven’t had the same level of support, promotion, or investment to have developed and sustained a meaningful career, and so that has resulted in a certain level of marginalisation – historical marginalisation – that has fostered a resentment – for good reason.”

Many musicians and former musicians who took part in Bass Culture had never even read their own press cuttings – articles featured in “magazines they were not interested in”, accompanied by “a postagestamp-sized image”. On the flipside to this, Mykaell identified a “need to be seen” in many of these individuals, following years of marginalisation by both record labels and the press. This was one of the factors fuelling Bass Culture’s strong focus on photography and videography. Mykaell partnered with the iconic music photographer Adrian Boot, who “has the largest collection of images representing reggae in Britain”.

“We looked at how we would select the images that told a particular story,” Mykaell says. “This included the relationship to reggae, Jamaican communities and sound system culture over that period, and we agreed that we should approach bringing to life these individuals through life-size or

These images were accompanied by extensive film interviews, which, in turn, formed the raw material for a Bass Culture podcast. All of this was essential, in Mykaell’s view, to empower people to tell their own stories –essentially reclaiming the narrative from predominantly white salons of journalists and academics who have traditionally controlled it.

Taking this one step further, Mykaell and his research team arranged workshops, encouraging people to write their own stories, and with it, “upskilling” the community.

“I think at least one of those individuals is now completing their PhD this year at Goldsmiths.”

Another part of putting this project back into the community’s hands was

Benjamin Zephaniah meets Nelson Mandela at the South African Embassy, London 1990

Notting Hill Carnival, 1980

The Specials in Montreux

enabling them to curate their own weekly events – a memorable one being the Rude Boy fashion show.

“The Rude Boy catwalk show –hilarious!” Mykaell says. “Where people were asked to come dressed as they were when they were 18. And people turned up in clothes they really should not have! But it was just a fun way of exploring fashion and the story of music.”

With the support of the then-Culture Secretary Matt Hancock and Ticket Master, Mykaell took this research to the Mayor of London, and the Form 696 was repealed as a direct result.

“It was the use of Big Data to challenge the idea that young Black males are essentially criminals and that the gathering of these individuals would incite some kind of civil unrest,” Mykaell says.

As well as hitting artists’ careers and earnings, the invasive treatment connected with Form 696 – such as confiscating phones and rifling through contact lists – echoed a dark history faced by Black British reggae artists decades earlier. With Black

communities and their music excluded from pubs and working men’s clubs, sound men would construct their own custom-made sound systems at illegal house parties.

“These were dangerous times and people were breaking the law – the law had been fashioned in a way so that listening to Black music publicly felt dangerous,” Jacqueline says. “That is absolutely wrong. It’s absolutely wrong, you know. This wasn’t even the 1920s where you could associate it – like jazz – with prohibition. It was engineered as a result of racism.”

For Mykaell, grime is just the latest incarnation of young Black musicians fighting a system that tries to suppress them. He points to the “multiskilled and entrepreneurial” nature of many grime artists – creating their own video content and even championing online gaming.

“I think Black youth music has always been born out of a resistance to the challenge of being a Black musician in Britain,” Mykaell says. “Always. Whether it’s East London, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester. Whether you consider drum ‘n’ bass or trip hop or grime –it’s a resistance to the industry and

your ability to exist as a Black British musician – so that’s why I don’t separate it. I think jump forward to 2016 – 17 – 18, grime’s suddenly ascendent because they’ve recognised it’s down to them to challenge the system. And they circumvent the industry.”

So, is this a kind of antidote to the marginalisation of Black British music?

“Yeah, it’s an antidote – or a vaccine, I would say, a bit like the COVID vaccine. It only lasts 12 weeks, right? And then you might assume you’re OK, only to be reminded, look, it only lasts 12 weeks! You’re now vulnerable again.”

Though the Bass Culture project was originally planned to last three years, six years in, it has taken on a life of its own – with a British Library exhibition scheduled for 2024.

“I think the most important thing of all is that it exists,” Jacqueline says. “What you have is something that exists for everybody, and you can build on what exists – and what better legacy is there. It existed in Mykaell’s mind. And it exists now as an academic resource. We’re lucky to have people who make music and we’re lucky to have people who respect music and want it chronicled.”

Linton Kwesi Johnson (LKJ) on Railton Road, Brixton, 1979

BLUEPRINT FOR A GREENER WORLD

For the third year in a row, the University of Westminster has been recognised as one of the global frontrunners in its work towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDG Impact Rankings, published by Times Higher Education, measure how universities around the world perform against 17 goals which were set out by the United Nations (UN) in 2015. The purpose of these goals is to act as a blueprint towards achieving peace and prosperity for people and the planet by 2030.

Since Westminster’s first submission in 2019, the University has been steadily improving its performance in this prestigious league table year on year. In April 2022, Westminster was recognised as being one of the top 15 per cent out of 1,406 universities worldwide for its work on sustainability.

As a global institution, Westminster is already contributing to society and creating value through research, learning and teaching – the SDG framework allows the University to combine and report effectively on its progress and achievements.

“When we talk about sustainability, people usually think of the environmental areas like energy, water and waste,” explains Katherine Bojczuk, Head of Sustainability at Westminster.

“But when we talk about sustainable development, we’re really talking about the true definition of sustainability. So that includes those social and economic aspects as well, and that’s where the SDGs come in.”

The role of the Sustainability Team, led by Katherine, is to embed sustainability across the University – throughout professional services, academic research and even the curriculum.

“Often, we’ll get a comment or a question from a colleague or a student, perhaps with an idea for something that they’re really passionate about,” she says. “We’re always getting new ideas pop up in our inbox. A lot of the day is making those connections and understanding the kinds of things happening at the University, and how they can fit in with the SDGs.”

The Impact Rankings

The hard work of the Sustainability Team and the eagerness of the Westminster community to embrace sustainable measures is proving successful, as demonstrated in the annual Impact Rankings.

The Times Higher Education SDG Impact Rankings launched in 2018 as the first global attempt to measure how universities around the world perform against the 17 SDGs. The Impact Rankings use carefully calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparison across four broad areas: research, stewardship, outreach and teaching, through evidence submitted by universities. They allow for institutions to submit evidence for any number of SDGs.

Our highlights for this year included:

29th globally for SDG10: Reduced Inequalities

46th globally for SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production

77th globally for SDG5: Gender Equality

“This impressive performance reflects Westminster’s commitment to the SDGs and our values to bring together our collective energies to play our part in addressing the climate crisis and inequalities to enable a more sustainable and socially just world,” says Dain Son Robinson, former Sustainable Development Goals Co-ordinator at Westminster.

“In seven of the eleven SDGs Westminster participated in, the University performed in the top 25 per cent of institutions worldwide, which confirms the real impact and value Westminster contributes to the world as well as its dedication to improving society in a number of different areas.”

Priorities in action

The SDGs given most precedence are those which are linked to Westminster’s priorities as an institution. The University’s commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), as well as its core values of being a responsible, progressive and compassionate institution, are reflected in the impressive performance and

continued improvements in SDGs 5 and 10, for example.

“We have embarked on a very ambitious project of culture change,” says Professor Dibyesh Anand, Head of Social Sciences and Co-chair of the University’s EDI Committee.

The EDI Committee lead the University in the direction of equality, diversity and inclusion by supporting and encouraging engagement with EDI programmes and action plans. They work in collaboration with the University’s EDI networks (BME network, Women of Westminster network and LGBTQ+ network) to challenge prejudices and celebrate diversity across Westminster.

This year, for example, the focus has been on anti-racism.

“Our University outlined a 15-point Black Lives Matter commitment in 2020. So we have been putting that into practice. But the key aspect is making the University not just non-racist but actively anti-racist. We’re achieving that through policies and processes, but also through conversations.

“We have had events and festivals to encourage conversations on difficult issues, like how to decolonise the University. We also had a major conference on anti-racism, with an open forum for students and colleagues to be involved.”

It is this positive action which makes Westminster unique in its approach to EDI, says Dibyesh.

“It is the shift away from just policies and processes, to lived experience.”

IN SEVEN OF THE ELEVEN SDGs WESTMINSTER PARTICIPATED IN, THE UNIVERSITY PERFORMED IN THE TOP 25 PER CENT OF INSTITUTIONS WORLDWIDE, WHICH CONFIRMS THE REAL IMPACT AND VALUE WESTMINSTER CONTRIBUTES TO THE WORLD.

“As a University, the fact that we have done so well in both SDG 5 and 10 shows that those are both genuine priorities for the University,” Katherine adds. “It is something we continue to focus on and excel at.”

A greener future

Mapping progress to the SDGs is an encouraging process that verifies the areas of sustainability that the University is already doing well in. But it is also a useful tool for highlighting areas of improvement.

Katherine’s team look at emerging areas of work throughout the year, and put those forward in the rankings as well. For example, this year the University submitted evidence for the SDG13: Climate Action for the first time.

“It gives us a bit of a benchmark to understand where we are in the rankings – globally and in the UK,” Katherine explains. “That then gives us an idea of where we could make improvements.”

Climate Action has been the main focus this year, she says.

“We have spent a lot of time coming up with our baseline – understanding where we are with Climate Action, understanding what our carbon footprint

is and what we can do to improve it. So we’re looking at emissions for things like procurement and travel. That’s helping us to build a bigger picture.”

But one of the biggest challenges for achieving net zero targets comes from construction and the University buildings themselves.

This is where Alessandra Foderaro, Deputy Director of Capital Development at Westminster, comes in. She oversees the University’s construction projects, to ensure they are being designed with sustainability at the heart of the decision-making processes.

“We try to do more than the minimum requirements for planning, and meeting the building regulations,” she says. “It’s an extra cost and an extra commitment that the University is embracing. But if it was easy, probably everybody would do it.”

One of the University’s largest capital projects currently is the redevelopment of 29 Marylebone Road.

“29MR is a very interesting case. The building as it stands is not really fit for purpose. As a developer, it would have been better to demolish the building. But the moment you demolish a building, you’ve got all that embodied carbon of

the previous building, all the embodied carbon of your rebuilding. So instead, we are working to modify the building, without demolition.”

In addition, there are a host of sustainability initiatives being implemented at 29 Marylebone Road. These include triple-glazed windows, significant planting on two roof terraces to enhance biodiversity, electric heating and cooling via air source heat pumps, energy efficient LED lighting and lower flush WCs to reduce water consumption.

Alessandra says she finds the SDGs a useful means of mapping out projects, to see how they can contribute to the University’s overall sustainability goals.

“Sometimes there are things you do that you don’t realise map with the SDGs. For example, by providing a building that doesn’t have dark corners or corridors with dead ends, we are contributing to making colleagues and students feel safe. Which relates to Reduced Inequalities.”

This is why they map the SDGs for every project, she says.

“As you map, you ask yourself – can I do more to support sustainability?”

Westminster’s positive outcomes are thanks to many members of the

University community, whose work contributes to the SDGs in one way or another. However, there is always room for improvement, with much to be done to reach its targets.

“It’s a huge piece of work,” says Katherine. “We have been doing a lot around trying to establish the net zero targets, and understand our carbon footprint and how that impacts us operationally. That’s our main focus for now.”

Westminster will continue working hard towards becoming a sustainable institution and creating a sustainable future for students, colleagues and alumni.

“I am incredibly proud of the University’s performance in the latest THE Impact Rankings,” says Dr Peter Bonfield, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University. “Our shared values of being progressive, compassionate and responsible play an important role in delivering our social and economic impact around the world and in bringing our communities and society together. Our University is in an excellent position to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and it is our opportunity and duty to do so.”

We can’t just afford to build greener. We must build less.

In an article for The Conversation, Johannes Novy, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Westminster, discusses why building greener may not be an effective solution for cutting global emissions.

When the built environment took centre stage at COP26, the scale and urgency of the climate crisis and of the industry’s responsibility to address it came into focus. A recent report from the UN’s Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction shows that the buildings and construction sector is responsible for 38 per cent of global CO2 emissions.

Increasing attention has been paid, in recent years, to emissions resulting from how our buildings are operated: how they are heated, cooled and lit. Those due to the production and supply of building materials and the

construction itself have received less attention. And yet, they alone account for 10 per cent of global emissions.

Much of the sector thrives on a wasteful cycle of demolition and new builds. In the UK alone, an estimated 50,000 buildings are torn down each year. Which begs the question: is building greener really the solution?

Whole-life carbon approach

Despite efforts by the likes of sustainable architecture pioneer William McDonough and organisations including the World Green Building Council, breaking this demolition and

THE GREENEST BUILDINGS ARE THOSE THAT ALREADY EXIST.

new-build cycle has proven difficult. Reusing existing building stock is a complex issue. If not done sustainably, it can also cause a hike in emissions. But there are several other reasons why reuse has not become more of a default option:

1. Many architects have found that it was easier to make a name for themselves with glitzy new buildings than with sustainable design methods and retrofits, and, frequently, more –and quicker – money could be made by tearing down existing buildings and replacing them.

2. There are economic incentives for those who profit from the current system – who sell construction materials, carry out demolitions or whose business model exclusively focuses on new builds, instead of reckoning with existing buildings, refurbishing them and integrating them into new schemes – to not do things differently.

3. In architecture education and professional accreditation, as elsewhere, there has been a lack of climate literacy. This has left architects ill-prepared to effectively tackle the climate crisis.

Recent initiatives show that things are changing. Architects’ Journa l, for example, started the RetroFirst campaign in 2019, which advocates for prioritising retrofitting over demolition and new construction. As the campaign puts it, the greenest buildings are those that already exist.

In September, a report published by the Royal Academy of Engineering drew further attention to the environmental costs that the industry incurs and possible ways to address them. Central to this new way of thinking about construction is what architects and developers call a wholelife carbon approach.

Building greener

The whole-life approach considers a building’s entire life cycle, from construction, occupation and renovation to repair, demolition and disposal. In a typical UK housing block, emissions attributable to construction and maintenance account for 51 per cent of the building’s total carbon emissions. Making buildings energy efficient to operate has long been a priority. But in most places, government policies for low- or zero-carbon buildings still do not fully – if at all – consider the socalled hidden or embodied emissions. These result from the extraction and production of building materials, such as cement, and the construction process itself. Green-building certification schemes too have long overlooked them.

Buildings today are usually built to last notably shorter periods of time than they used to be. If the typical lifespan of a traditional building of stone, brick and timber saw first repairs needed after 60 years, modern buildings have deteriorated twice as fast. Significant carbon savings could be achieved by returning to more robust and adaptable construction.

When the built-to-last principle proves impractical, however, buildings designed for a shorter lifespan can still be made more sustainable, provided a whole-life carbon approach is adopted and the components and materials used are easy to dismantle and reuse.

A surge in innovation in recent years has seen a rise in the use of wood and other bio-based materials and sustainable design principles, from the circular economy to the idea of ‘cradle-to-cradle’ production and manufacturing, which defines waste as a resource and aims to perpetuate recycling.

L’Innesto in Milan, for example, has been promoted as a showcase for the city’s sustainability strategies, and is set to be Italy’s first zero-emissions social housing. This project ticks all kinds of boxes: construction will involve minimal soil excavation and bio-sourced building materials with lots of greenery and very little space for cars. Internal heating systems will be powered by renewable energy sources – and more.

The problem, though, is that even L’Innesto will only be fully carbonneutral 30 years after its construction. The project, like many others, relies on carbon offsetting to achieve its zerocarbon credentials.

Make no mistake. Green projects such as L’Innesto becoming the norm would be a big step forward. But there is no getting around the fact that three decades to carbon neutrality is a long time in the fight against climate change.

This is the industry’s inconvenient truth. The climate crisis is, in no small part, a product of our voracious appetite for building. It is not something, as climate activist Greta Thunberg has pointed out, that we can simply build our way out of. We cannot afford to only build greener. We need to build less.

How fighter jet pilots withstand high G

In an article for The Conversation, Dr Bradley Elliott, Senior Lecturer in Physiology at the University of Westminster, explains what happens to pilots’ bodies when they fly at breakneck speeds.

In the new Top Gun: Maverick film, pilots zig-zag fighter jets across the sky at stomach-churning speeds. Tom Cruise’s character, Captain ‘Maverick’ Pete Mitchell, is still shocking fellow pilots with his prowess and daredevil antics after 30 years in the job.

Maverick flies an F-18 fighter jet in the film, an aircraft which can reach over 1,000 miles per hour. How do real pilots cope with huge forces involved in flying so fast?

I’ve had a taste of what happens to your body when flying a jet. I was sitting in a tiny cockpit with four times normal gravity pushing down on me when another violent manoeuvre shoved me deep into my seat. Muscles fatigued beyond function, my vision began to grey out and I realised I was losing control.

I don’t remember what happened next, but cockpit video footage shows me passing out and collapsing, held up only by my harness.

Thankfully, this wasn’t while in control of a multi-million-pound high performance fighter jet and trying to outwit my opponent in a high-speed duel. I was in a ground-based training faculty for military pilots as a research guinea pig. Think of a merry-go-round spinning around, but much, much faster, and then expand it out so it’s the

size of a bus, and you have a human centrifuge. I was strapped onto the outside of this, being tested as part of a study into the effect of high-gravitational loading (high G) on the human body. I failed this test in a way that would have crashed and killed everyone onboard if I had been flying a jet.

What is high G?

We are held to the surface of the Earth by gravity. This force can be quantified as one unit of gravity (1G). When you rapidly change direction (think about riding a roller coaster or cornering a car), you can feel centrifugal force (which acts on an object moving in circles) pushing you outwards. It adds to the force of gravity acting on you. I lost consciousness after about 15 seconds at 4G (or four times normal gravity pushing down on me) when this extra force overcame my blood pressure’s ability to move blood from my heart up to my brain.

Formally known as gravitational-induced loss of consciousness, pilots refer to this as ‘Gloc’, pronounced ‘gee-lock’.

The retinal cells at the back of your eyes are particularly sensitive to low blood pressure. That’s why one of the first signs that Gloc was about to occur was loss of colour vision (greyout)

before complete loss of vision (blackout). The next symptom was brain hypoxia – a complete loss of consciousness due to a lack of blood supply and therefore oxygen to the brain. Approximately 15–20 per cent of Royal Air Force fighter pilots have experienced Gloc at least once in their career. As you wake up, your muscles twitch uncontrollably and you are disoriented. Your neurons fire wildly while your brain tries to figure out what you just did and why.

WITH TRAINING AND PRACTICE, PILOTS CAN WITHSTAND MORE THAN TWICE THE G FORCE THAT MADE ME PASS OUT.

Why pilots can withstand high G High-performance pilots train on facilities like the centrifuge I was in and learn how close to the edge they can go, the symptoms of greyout and blackout and when to back off. Pilots are also taught anti-gravity strain manoeuvres. These are a special set of

contractions that squeezes the muscles of their abdominal core and thighs and physically push blood upwards towards their heart to keep the brain supplied with precious oxygen. Pilots wear antigravity flight suits, which automatically squeeze their legs when they do particularly violent manoeuvres, to help push blood towards the heart.

With training and practice, pilots can withstand more than twice the G force that made me pass out. This is physically exhausting training, comparable to working out to the maximum in a gym. But it can make all the difference during a high-stakes duel where turning your jet faster than your opponent is life or death. Military pilots are encouraged to keep fit as muscular strength helps with G tolerance.

Fighter jets are a long way from the relative comfort of crowded budget airliners. Rapidly changing gravitational

loads on fighter pilots can result in severe back and neck pain due to constantly varying gravity, and delicate sections of pilots’ lungs can even temporarily collapse under high-gravity loads.

Pilots must also master the mental aspects of high-performance flying. Controlling your own jet is a relentless maths challenge which fighter pilots must get a grip on while trying to outthink opponents in a high-speed 3D game of chess.

Top Gun: Maverick

What does that mean for the 57-yearold Maverick in his latest adventure?

As we age, our bodies decline in all sorts of physical functions. This includes all the individual aspects of our cardiovascular system which works continuously to keep our brains well supplied with oxygen. While it would

be reasonable to assume that Maverick wouldn’t be able to pull the same Gs as his younger self, that might be incorrect.

There’s not a huge amount of data on older high-performance pilots, but there are some hints that suggest being older could be slightly beneficial to G tolerance, possibly due to higher blood pressures and slightly stiffer arteries seen with age. Since G tolerance can be learnt by experience, it could just be that older pilots are better adapted through years of training.

That said, increased strength and muscle mass also seems to help with G tolerance, and we tend to lose muscle mass and strength with age. Older athletes retain more muscle mass and force with ageing than untrained older individuals, so if Maverick’s still playing plenty of volleyball on the beach and kept up his flying hours, he might just be able to outpace his younger self.

CLASSNOTES

The University of Westminster has a global community of more than 180,000 alumni in over 180 countries worldwide. Here is a selection of updates we have received from our alumni over the past year.

We love to hear about your accomplishments since graduation. To feature in next year’s Classnotes, please send a short update and a photo to alumni@westminster.ac.uk

GRAHAM HOBSON

COMPUTER SCIENCE BSC, 1986

I started my career in the finance sector. In 1999, I bought a digital camera and discovered there was nowhere to get high-quality photographic prints. I wrote a business plan on the tube each morning to solve this problem and got some of my colleagues to invest, as well as a friend to join me as a co-founder. We started Photobox, initially having to run it as a small business. Over time we raised more money, merged and acquired other businesses, expanded into Europe and eventually sold to a private equity firm in 2016. At the time of sale, Photobox employed 1,400 people and turned over more than £300m per year. I now advise on entrepreneurship and pro-bono causes.

NOREEN NAROO-PUCCI

FASHION DESIGN BA, 1993

I am Chief Design Officer at menswear brand Mizzen and Main, and CoFounder and Chief Creative Officer of KIK Axion Sports, a martial arts uniform start-up brand. Prior to this, I was the SVP of Menswear Design at Calvin Klein. A large part of my time was spent at Under Armour where I was Senior Creative Director and then VP of Global Design from 2018 to 2019. I support the next generation of designers, having held teaching posts at Mica/ Hopkins, Parsons/The New School and FIT, as well as serving on two design school boards.

FIONA WILLIAMS

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES BSC, 1997

Now a freelance science writer, I have won the Bridport Prize novel award for The House of Broken Bricks while completing an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, where the manuscript was shortlisted for the Janklow & Nesbit Prize. Born and raised in South-East London, I now live on a smallholding on the Somerset Levels. I am currently researching my second novel and hope to embark on a PhD in Creative Writing. Twitter @FeeWilliams75

KATIA BALDINA

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND LIAISON MA, 2015

I am a Russian national based in Poland, currently employed by a company which is part of the London Stock Exchange Group. Shortly after graduating from Westminster and just before I left the UK, I had completed a short course at Oxford (Summer School in History and Politics). For a few years now, I have been helping with the English–Russian translations of documents on the subject of e-waste. This experience gave me the confidence to think about starting up my own LSP company. I now have a dream of launching it fully in London and moving back to the UK one day.

DR SHAMEEM FAWDAR BIOTECHNOLOGY IN MEDICINE BSC, 2006 AND PHD, 2010

After Westminster, I worked at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute. I then held several positions in Research and Development in Mauritius during which I introduced and implemented novel research platforms in public research organisations. I also lectured on techniques in the fields of stem cell and cancer biology, novel therapeutic targets characterisation and bioinformatics data mining. I won the Best Young Mauritian Scientist Award (Government of Mauritius) and Best Mauritian Women Scientist Award (UNESCO-MERCK) in recognition of my contribution to science. Currently, I am the Chief Scientific Officer of Axonova Pharma Ltd and the spin-off Indika Pharma Ltd.

SOFIA FOMINOVA

MARKETING MANAGEMENT MSC, 2017 ENTREPRENEURSHIP, INNOVATION AND ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT MSC, 2018

IAN ROSS

PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS BA, 1974

I started out as an assistant cameraman and then a film cameraman for a TV station and went on to start my own company with a friend. We mainly shot drama films for TV, but also got involved in feature films. By the time I was 30, I was an international film producer. I have worked in Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as New York and L.A. for Universal Pictures. I then became interested in making TV commercials, and for nearly 40 years I have run my own TV commercials production companies in London, South Africa, Greece and Dubai.

KUNAL THAKKER

BUSINESS STUDIES BA, 2005

I set up dental group Tooth Club, comprising ten dental practices. The concept comes from my own anxiety about visiting the dentist as a child, and creates a warm welcoming environment where patients are made to feel relaxed by removing that distinctive dental smell, replacing it with herbal teas, a friendly team and your favourite show on Netflix while you have your dental treatment. The dental group has been trading for two years and already has a revenue of £7m, employing over 150 people.

I am Co-Founder of Net0, a carbon management platform that helps businesses and governments transition to net zero. Net0 has signed an agreement with the Swiss Government to subsidise the platform cost for all Swiss companies, and the Indian city of Pune is going carbon neutral with the assistance of Net0’s technology. I have also built a platform that helps businesses increase transparency across their supply chains (Supertrace.com) and a platform that empowers businesses to find sustainable, carbon-neutral suppliers and vendors (GreenVendor).

CATHY HAYWARD

JOURNALISM MA, 2002

After a career as a journalist, I moved into the world of PR and set up an award-winning communications agency. Devastated and inspired by the death of my parents in quick succession, I started writing what turned out to be my debut novel. The Girl in the Maze was published by Agora Books in November 2021 and is an enthralling story of three generations of women linked by one terrible tragedy. It won Agora Books’ Lost the Plot Work in Progress Prize and was longlisted for the Grindstone Literary Prize and Flash500. I’ve recently signed a book deal for my second and third books.

AYANNA DEANE GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH NUTRITION MSC, 2019

I completed my thesis in Zambia and was selected to present my research at the World Public Health Nutrition (WPHN) Congress. I then secured a role as Project Officer at a charity called School Food Matters. During COVID-19, I used my role to implement, co-ordinate and manage the day-to-day logistics of the Healthy Breakfast Boxes Project, responding to food insecurity among families with children. With a £1m budget, I delivered more than one million breakfasts to children severely impacted by the pandemic, exposing the scale of food insecurity and the knock-on impact on children’s health.

JENNIFER MOHAMMADI COGNITIVE AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE BSC, 2020

Between the ages of 14–19, I moved between eight different foster care placements. I co-founded Strengths & Resilience group, with sessions including art therapy and mindfulness to explore difficulties experienced by care leavers.

I then started a group for young parents involved with social services to have a safe space to discuss their struggles. I worked as a healthcare assistant at the Children’s Trust in the rehabilitation ward during lockdown. Currently, I am putting together a buddy scheme, so care leavers can have someone to cheer them on when others are celebrated by their families at graduation.

MAX BOENDER

COMPUTER NETWORK SECURITY BSC, 2021

I have always been curious about how products are made, the route they take to get to us and the environmental impact of this process. In the early COVID-19 lockdowns, I developed an integrated hardware- and softwarebased solution that makes it easy for businesses to track the flow of goods into and out of their business on the blockchain. Since starting Myneral Labs at Westminster with another student, I have raised two rounds of funding valuing the business at £750,000 and now employ four full-time employees.

BRIAN WILLOUGHBY MODERN LANGUAGES, 1971

I began my career playing guitar for Beatles’ protégée Mary Hopkin. I worked with New World, Joe Brown and Roger Whittaker, before joining No Sweat. From 1978 to 2004, I was lead guitarist with Strawbs. In 2019, I was presented with a Proclamation from The Legislature of New Jersey for my services to the music industry. I have worked as a recording session musician with Monty Python, The Sweet’s Brian Connolly and Nanci Griffith. ‘Alice’s Song’ with my wife Cathryn Craig was an Aled Jones Highlight of the Year on BBC Radio 2. The Telegraph’s Martin Chilton named our duo as his Folk Gig Pick of the Year.

PROFESSOR CHRIS BELLAMY RUSSIAN BA, 1987

I became Defence Correspondent of The Independent in 1990 and reported from Russia extensively, including from Grozny in 1995. I was shortlisted for Foreign Reporter of the Year in the British Press Awards for a report from the Chechen mountains. In 1997, I became Director of the Security Studies Institute at Cranfield University. In 2007, I published Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War, which won the Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature. This year, I have appeared on Sky News, BBC World, BBC News, BFBS and the Chinese Global Television Network (CGTN) to discuss the Russia–Ukraine conflict.

YEN OOI

ENGLISH LITERATURE MA, 2012

I’m a writer-researcher, exploring East and Southeast Asian culture, identity and values through creative writing and literature. My projects aim to cultivate cultural engagement in our modern, technology-driven lives. Recently, I was narrative director and writer on Road to Guangdong (2020), a puzzlebased driving game. My latest book, Rén: The Ancient Chinese Art of Finding Peace and Fulfilment (non-fiction) was published in February 2022 by Welbeck. I’m also a visiting lecturer with the Creative Writing department at Westminster – grateful to be able to give back to the community.

SUHAIL ALGOSAIBI MBA, 2000

Bahrain was left divided between Sunnis and Shias after the 2011 crisis. Seeing this, some friends and I launched the non-political, non-partisan Bahrain Foundation for Dialogue. The BFD conducts events, community outreach programmes and ‘dialogue dinners’ to encourage civil dialogue and social cohesion. Since 2012 we’ve had over 100 events attended by over 9,000 people, and conducted learning trips to Northern Ireland, South Africa, the US and Lebanon.

LUBNA SHUJA

LAW LLB, 1989

I qualified as a solicitor in 1992, became a partner in a Bradford law firm in 1998 and in 2007 opened my own firm, Legal Swan Solicitors. I have represented clients in cases involving litigation, family, wills, probate and personal injury work. In October 2022, I will become the first Asian, the first Muslim and the seventh female to become President of the Law Society of England and Wales, which represents over 200,000 solicitors. I am currently Vice President, having been elected as Deputy Vice President.

NIKHIL INAMDAR JOURNALISM (INTERNATIONAL)BROADCAST MA, 2007

I am the BBC’s Business Correspondent, contributing to TV, online and radio outlets with programmes including BBC Breakfast, Outside Source, Asia Business Report, World Business Report and Talking Business. I won a News Broadcasting Award in 2020 for my feature on caste discrimination in Silicon Valley and I have published two business books, one of which has been a national bestseller with over 25,000 copies sold worldwide. I have also been a primetime business presenter with Indian news channel NDTV, where I interviewed heads of state, CEOs and policy shapers.

MONIQUE NOEL BROWN SPANISH AND GLOBAL COMMUNICATION BA, 2021

After graduating, I scored an internship with BT Enterprise as an Internal Communications intern. I created the BTwide slogan #WeAreDifferentTogether which is used to promote all diversity and inclusion activity and agendas across BT. I also volunteered my time to educate 14,000 Enterprise colleagues on the concept of Colourism through their Black History Month podcast. I have since been offered a new PR position with Amazon Web Services in London, where I am setting up a DEI Interns Committee.

MELANIE SMITH BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES MSC, 2005

As a biomedical scientist and scientific adviser in clinical and public health microbiology laboratory testing, I contributed to COVID-19 testing policy, guidance, legislation and standards. I developed an in-silico assurance programme and NHS monitoring to assure performance for detection of new COVID-19 variants for in-use tests, and shared learning and outcomes internationally. I have also worked in COVID-19 genomics, leading technical assurance and quality improvement for COVID-19 sequencing in England. I was awarded Healthcare Scientist of the Year 2021 for contributions to quality standards and variant assurance by the Office of the Chief Scientific Officer, NHS England.

COULD YOU MENTOR?

The University’s Future Ready Mentoring programmes support hundreds of students and recent graduates each year.

Our students need

huge

and longer term

To find out more,

from

OPEN DAYS

If you, or someone you know, is thinking about further study, join us in person or online for an open day. Open days give you the chance to see our facilities, talk to staff and students and get a taste of life at Westminster. To book your place at our upcoming Undergraduate or Postgraduate open days, visit: westminster.ac.uk/study/open-days

TELEPHONE CAMPAIGN

This November, our team of dedicated student callers will be in touch to offer you an opportunity to support Westminster students through the Ignite Fund (formerly 125 Fund). Find out more at:

University

APPRENTICESHIPS AT WESTMINSTER

Westminster offers several apprenticeships, supporting various sectors. Hiring an apprentice is a productive, cost-effective way for employers to expand or upskill their workforce.

We are keen to establish new relationships with employers from a wide range of sectors and welcome enquiries.

Contact our Apprenticeships Team via: enquiries.apprenticeships@westminster.ac.uk

WHAT IT TAKES ONLINE

SHORT COURSES

Westminster offers more than a hundred Short Courses in areas such as law, architecture, project management, nutrition, languages and many more. Choose the course that will help you contribute to your professional development. Find out more and book now: westminster.ac.uk/study/ short-courses

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