This post is part of the Countdown to Conference (C2C) series. We would love to feature a brief blog post from you too! Visit our main Countdown to Conference page for details! For more information about #GEAConf2019 visit the conference website

C2C: Keynote Speaker Professor Heidi Safia Mirza
Twitter: @HeidiMirza 
Keynote Date: Tuesday 25th June

Keynote Title: Dismantle, Decolonise and Disgrace: Black feminism and the challenges of racism and sexism in higher education

Abstract: What does racism and sexism look like in our institutions of higher education in so called post-race and post-feminist times? To answer this crucial question this keynote lecture draws on black feminist perspectives to explore the lives of Muslim, Black and Asian women who study and work within the unsafe spaces of patriarchal whiteness and asks how do we confront endemic sexual violence and dismantle embedded racism in our elite places of teaching and learning. Drawing on my intersectional research on gender, race and faith and the pedagogic practices, I reflect on the embodied work we must do as feminist teacher-learner-activists so we can survive and thrive and truly decolonise our institutions of higher learning.

Bio: Heidi Safia Mirza is Emeritus Professor in Equalities Studies, UCL Institute of Education and visiting Professor of Race, Faith and Culture at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. She is known for her pioneering intersectional research on race, gender and identity in education and has an international reputation for championing equality and human rights for women, black and Muslim young people through educational reform. She is author of several best-selling books including, Black British Feminism: A Reader;Race, Gender and Educational Desire: Why black women succeed and fail; Black and Postcolonial Feminisms in New Times: Researching Educational Inequalities; Respecting Difference: Race, faith and culture for teacher educators; and Young Female and Black, which was voted in the BERA top 40 most influential educational studies in Britain. Her most recent book is Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, whiteness and decolonising the academy (Palgrave McMillian 2018).

See a video from a recent CRASSH Impact event featuring Professor Mirza in conversation with author Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, chaired by NUS President Shakira Martin:

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