UCL Institute of Advanced Studies

Recorded live at Three-Sixty Festival, this special episode brings together spoken word and conversation with Ay Hearts and MyselfBlaize, whose work sit at the intersection of poetry and community practice. Moving between performance and discussion, we explore care as something shaped in real time – as we make space for ourselves, navigate our realities, and shape the environments and practices we...

A conversation about Rahul Rao’s book, ‘The Psychic Lives of Statues’. The conversation considers the agitation caused by attempts to remove celebratory statues of figures involved in the violence of the Atlantic Slave trade or of colonialism. Are statues made into ‘idols’ by people who want to defend these histories? How should we understand the sudden ‘coming alive’ of these previously forgotten...

In this episode, Awa sits down with Lavin Ousi, a returning guest from Season 1, to explore what it means to navigate Kurdish identity without a state formally recognised under international law, and how culture, language, and community hold that identity together beyond borders. The episode reflects on the complexities of “statelessness,” and the ways Kurdish identities are continuously shaped th...

Luke de Noronha is joined by Gavan Titley, Professor in the Department of Media Studies at Maynooth University. Gavan has written several books on race, racism and multiculturalism, with a particular focus on the generative role of media and communication, including Is Free Speech Racist? with Polity Press in 2020. They discuss the question of free speech, which has become so central to questions...

In this episode, Awa returns to conversations with guests from the first three episodes of season 2, weaving together their reflections to explore what drives us in life, and how that can take different forms across our work, our lives, and the ways we make sense of the world.

Luke de Noronha welcomes Sita Balani, Senior Lecturer in English at Queen Mary University of London and the author, most recently, of Deadly and Slick: the Sexual Life of Race in Britain (Verso Press, 2023). They discuss Sita’s recent writings on culture wars, melodrama as a mode of political communication, and the difference between the ordinary and normal. The conversation was recorded in Novemb...

In this episode, Awa is in conversation with Fuad Busoir about love – what it means, how it is recognised, and whether it’s something felt or practised. Moving between romantic relationships, friendship and family, they reflect on the ways love shapes how people relate to one another, to space, and to themselves. Along the way, they sit with questions of accountability, intention, and whether love...

In this episode, Awa sits down with scholar Luke de Noronha to question what borders really do in our everyday lives. From citizenship and belonging to the politics behind “migration crises,” they explore how borders shape who belongs, who is welcomed, and who is framed as a threat.

Radical Abundance – understanding the reconfiguration of the global economy and how we might survive it Keir Milburn and Kai Heron in conversation with Gargi Bhattacharyya. This conversation was recorded in the summer of 2025 and discusses the changing role and approach of the United States and the extreme hardships arising from climate catastrophe as triggers to re-imagine the global economy. The...

Radical Abundance – understanding the reconfiguration of the global economy and how we might survive it Keir Milburn and Kai Heron in conversation with Gargi Bhattacharyya. This conversation was recorded in the summer of 2025 and discusses the changing role and approach of the United States and the extreme hardships arising from climate catastrophe as triggers to re-imagine the global economy. The...

Radical Abundance – understanding the reconfiguration of the global economy and how we might survive it Keir Milburn and Kai Heron in conversation with Gargi Bhattacharyya. This conversation was recorded in the summer of 2025 and discusses the changing role and approach of the United States and the extreme hardships arising from climate catastrophe as triggers to re-imagine the global economy. The...

Started as a student-led project, Diaspora Diaries is now a SPRC alumni-led podcast that aims to hold space for the many ways race, migration, language, and place shape our everyday lives within the diaspora — in our relationships, our work, our bodies, and our memories — and how we negotiate these forces. One central question, carried throughout the episodes, explores how each of us relates to th...

In this episode, Awa speaks with spoken word artist Tariq Brown about using poetry to make power visible. They explore how he transforms complex, often academic ideas – from capitalism to systemic oppression – into poetic, thought-provoking verse. It’s a conversation about heritage, awareness, and the poet’s role in illuminating systems of oppression.

Gala Rexer talks to Edna Bonhomme, culture writer, historian of science, journalist, and author of “A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19” (2025). The conversation covers theoretical and methodological questions about the relationship between confinement and disease, Edna’s anti/inter-disciplinary approach to writing, health...

In this podcast, Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka talks to the Guardian journalist Lanre Bakare about his new book, 'We Were There: How Black Culture, Resistance and Community Shaped Modern Britain'. Lanre Bakare was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He is a correspondent covering arts and culture for the Guardian, where his writing focuses on the intersection of art, race and culture across multiple disc...

In this podcast, Subhadra Das answers ten questions on ten lies that make up Western Civilisation. The conversation covers looting, the value of art, the history of statistics, remaking public history, repatriating stolen objects, and what museums and institutions could be doing with their zombies. Subhadra Das is a writer, historian, broadcaster and comedian who looks at the relationship between...

In this episode, Ellen and Awa discuss European identity building and memory politics, highlighting how national narratives shape collective memory. They emphasise the selective remembrance of historical events, and its impact on national identities. Together, they examine the silencing of racialised people’s histories and experiences within discourse on national identity and how this, in turn, pl...

Stephanie discusses the valorisation of cultural heritage within the African diaspora, noting a shift in societal perception post-2020. She highlights the commodification of cultural pride by businesses and the rise of Afrobeats and other African music globally. Stephanie references the reinterpretation of cultural symbols like the Union Jack and the importance of authenticity in branding. Stephan...

Discussion of Gargi’s research and the new module designed to open conversations about how we might understand the interplay between global politics and the global economy in this moment of rapid realignment. Speakers: Gargi Bhattacharyya, Paige Patchin, Luke de Noronha

Discussion of Paige’s research on questions of health, racism and why we must learn to understand the languages of the biological and the pharmaceutical if we are to grasp emerging technologies of racialisation. Speakers: Paige Patchin, Luke de Noronha, Gargi Bhattacharyya

Discussion of Luke’s research and why thinking about movement and bordering allows us understand emerging machineries of (perhaps) racialised violence. Speakers: Luke de Noronha, Paige Patchin, Gargi Bhattacharyya

In this Short Takes, Luke reads the preface to the paperback edition of Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica, published with Manchester University Press in June 2025.

In this episode, Awa and Jade discuss their experiences navigating morality and dealing with tensions and contradictions in their personal and professional lives. They explore the challenges of addressing systems of oppressions within their families and friendships, and break down what it means to study or work in spaces that uphold these structures. Together, they look into the importance of stay...

In this episode, Awa and Marianne explore the concept of diaspora – is simply “being from somewhere else” enough to claim a diasporic identity? They unpack what it means to relate to a place and reflect on how diasporic experiences are shaped by history, culture, and power. The conversation also turns inward, as they grapple with the complexities of navigating positionalities within academia and t...

Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka is joined by Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey. Lola Young became one of the first Black Women members of the House of Lords in 2004. Raised in foster care in north London, she studied at the New College of Speech and Drama, then worked as an actress, before becoming Professor of Cultural Studies at Middlesex University. Later, she worked in arts administration before receivi...