What’s your job title and how long have you been at Loughborough?

I’m a PhD researcher in Geography and Environment and a mixed-race, interdisciplinary, intersectional, feminist scholar and anti-racist social justice activist. My research focuses on how racialised identities affect people’s perceptions of academic identities and academic careers, in order to investigate the underrepresentation of racialised minority staff in UK higher education. I’ve been at Loughborough for two years.

Tell us what a typical day in your job looks like?

I usually start my days with my most important tasks related to my PhD, such as planning or writing a chapter or reading an article or book on topics such as racism, colonialism, whiteness, and identity empowerment. I have recently been exploring global and local mixed-race identities! I try to keep my academic practices decolonial, de-Westernised, and creative through different practices such as poetry analysis, artwork, or sitting on the floor with hundreds of Post-it notes.

Throughout the day, I am usually in a meeting room on endless calls. This could be one of the committees I sit on to embed anti-racism into their leadership or organisational structures, offering my consulting advice to companies and institutions attempting to run anti-racism or decolonial training or workshops, or organising creative events like zine-making workshops and even therapeutic art sessions for students of colour. While this work does not get academically recognised, I do believe academia should be about giving and sharing knowledge.

Usually in the latter part of the day, I do more ‘fun’ or ‘personal’ research to shape my career. This includes things like exploring indigenous knowledge practices, mixed-race identities and histories, and even gamification! I am currently writing a paper on Dungeons and Dragons, educational learning theory, and anti-racist practice, which has nothing to do with my day job at all, but it’s fun. If I do have spare time, I write a blog called Rhi-Mixed views, where I step away from academic writing and create blog posts around mixed-race experiences, in an attempt to make academic knowledge more accessible.

What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on?

The best project I have worked on would be Loughborough’s first-ever Freedom School, which took place in 2022. Based on practices from the civil rights movement in the US, the Freedom School was designed to teach anti-racist and decolonial knowledge to racialised minority PhDs, to feel empowered by their identities and understand the workings of whiteness and colonialism in higher education. It was amazing to utilise my academic knowledge into something actionable and life-changing, and the report is still used today as an example of equitable practice.

What is your proudest moment at Loughborough?

I have many proud moments as anti-racism work is difficult, so when it pays off, it really pays off. Academically my proudest moment was the publishing of my first peer-reviewed paper entitled ‘”I’m not white”: counter-stories of “mixed race” women navigating PhDs’, as it provided a platform for many “mixed race” women to discuss their experiences and gave a space to those who fit ‘in-between’ categories. The proudest non-academic moment was being awarded the funding to conduct the first Loughborough collaboration with the company Mixedracefaces, to highlight and value the lived experiences and self-identifications of mixed-race staff and students on both campuses.

Tell us something you do outside of work that we might not know about?

Outside of work, I am really into fitness and artwork! I love to release all the anger and rage I get from the barriers I face doing anti-racism work by lifting heavy things and throwing things around. I then juxtapose this by sitting for hours on the floor, relaxingly oil-painting pictures of people.

What is your favourite quote?

My favourite quote is from author and activist bell hooks, who reminds us of our daily power: “Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognise your power. Not because they don’t see it, but because they don’t want it to exist.”

If you would like to feature in ‘5 Minutes With’, or you work with someone who you think would be great to include, please email Sadie Gration at S.Gration@lboro.ac.uk.