ConveRACEions with Dr Ibtihal Ramadan

We are delighted to invite you to the second virtual ConveRACEions event in 2022, discussing yet another critical issue regarding racial (in)equality in academia and beyond on the 31st of March, from 4pm-5:30pm (GMT- UK Timezone).

This month’s guest speaker will be Dr. Ibtihal Ramadan and her talk will be titled “Epistemic Racism in UK Academia in the Age of Islamophobia: The Voices of Muslim Academics”

A few words about the event:

Our event will start by introducing our initiative and our guest speaker, followed by Dr. Ibtihal’s talk and an open Q&A discussion. Our event will be held in Zoom and the link to join our virtual event will be shared in a separate email closer to the event. Please check you spam folder for an email from Eventbrite if you haven’t received the Zoom information one day before the event.

A few words about the speaker:

Dr Ibtihal Ramadan:

Ibtihal is currently working at Glasgow University in the School of Education. Prior to this she worked as a lecturer in Education at Swansea University after completing a research fellowship at Moray House School of Education in which she examined the experiences of Muslim academics, working in AHSS disciplines, at UK universities regarding producing knowledge that attempts to critically challenge the discourse that continue to problematise the Muslim presence in the West and beyond, which is impacted by the old orientalist tropes and tainted by a ‘War on Terror’ political rhetoric.

This research chimes with Decolonising the Curriculum movement, through providing the Muslims’ perspectives in relation to the curricula. Her PhD research examined the daily experiences of Muslim academics at UK universities; the findings showed that day-to-day racism and Islamophobic micro-aggressions have been part of their experiences. She has contributed to of the steering group of Ad-HE project on Tackling racism on Campus.

A few words about the talk:

Ibtihal’s talk will discuss findings from her research undertaken at the University of Edinburgh, along with a paper which is currently under review. The talk will focus on the associations between Islamophobia and racism, drawing from the experiences of Muslim academics who are trying to push current boundaries in order to break negative stereotypes and to challenge normative ideas of Muslim academics in British academia. Ibtihal’s talk will be drawing on the theoretical framework of critical race theory.

Disclaimer: Please note that this series of events focuses on racial issues which may be triggering and cause distress. Please only sign up if you feel comfortable with that. All of our speakers talk about their own personal and academic experiences which should be seen as such and not invalidated during the discussion.

A few words about ConveRACEions:

ConveRACEions is a project set up by Ph.D. students within the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this group aims to create a space for all of us to learn, discuss, reflect, and actively work towards equality, diversity, and social justice within academia. In collaboration with Dr Rosie Stenhouse, we have worked on an initiative to discuss and dismantle barriers to racial equality, as well as ways of moving forward from here.

With the support of the Social Responsibility and Sustainability Student Project Grant and the Student Experience Grant awarded to the ConveRACEions team, we are excited to invite monthly guest speakers to give one-hour-long talks on their research and/or experiences with racial and equality issues within (and outside) academia. You can find our previously recorded sessions here.

The ConveRACEions initiative was also recently awarded the Social Responsibility and Sustainability Changemaker Award 2021 from the University of Edinburgh.