Diversity archive
The annual Diversity Lecture, established at Imperial in 2005, forms part of Imperial College London’s commitment to promoting a culture of diversity and increasing our knowledge, awareness and understanding of diversity issues. Last year’s Diversity Lecture was ‘A Nation at Ease with Diversity?’ presented by Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown will present the 2008 Annual Diversity Lecture: ’Diversity, Equality and Commonality- mutually exclusive?’
Biography: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown came to this country in 1972 from Uganda. She completed her MPhil in literature at Oxford in 1975. She is a journalist who has written for The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, Time magazine, Newsweek, The Evening Standard, the Daily Mail and other newspapers and is now a regular columnist on The Independent and London’s Evening Standard. She is also a radio and television broadcaster and author of several books.
From 1996 to 2001 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was a research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research. She is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre and advises various key institutions on race matters. She is also a regular international public speaker in Britain, other European countries, north America and Asian nations. In June 1999, she received an honorary degree from the Open University for her contributions to social justice. She is President of the Institute of Family Therapy. Ms Alibhai-Brown was appointed an MBE for services to journalism in the 2001 new year’s honours, which she returned in protest against the war in Iraq in 2003. In September 2004, she was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford Brookes University.
In 2005, she was voted the 10th most influential black/Asian woman in the country in one poll and in another she was among the most powerful Asian media professionals in the UK. In 2007, she was appointed Honorary Visiting Professor in journalism at Cardiff University. She is currently writing a food/historical memoir about her life as an east African Asian.
Programme of event:
17.30 Introduction by Sir Richard Sykes, Rector, Imperial College London
17.35 Lecture by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
18.15 Audience questions
18.25 Vote of thanks by Sir Richard Sykes
A drinks reception will follow the lecture.