Colleagues proudly support Liverpool Against Racism events

Passionately sharing their thoughts, experiences and advice in addressing racial and social inequalities, LJMU’s very own Dominque Walker and Adam Vasco participated in sessions throughout the event on Tuesday 26 April, alongside Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Manger Moni Akinsanya.

Moni said: “It was an honour for the LJMU EDI team to work in partnership with the Liverpool City Council Culture Department in organising the Liverpool Against Racism Conference and the upcoming Youth Empower Conference taking place on Friday 29 April.  

“It was lovely to see LJMU staff and students, not just as delegates at the conference, but also hosting panel debates this week.”

The conference hosted local, national and international delegates, and Moni was part of the panel of experts in one of the breakout sessions to explore the main challenges in tackling racism in schools, ensuring empowerment for underrepresented students and professionals in the education sector.

The ‘New Approaches in Education’ panel, hosted by Adam Vasco from the School of Education, also shared effective models of diversity, inclusion and anti-racism within education.  

The afternoon sessions also explored music, sports, healthcare, how to talk to children about racism, the arts and ‘The Power of Community Organisations for Sustained Change’ panel hosted by Dominique Walker and featuring local community activists.

A great number of LJMU students and staff attended the conference, including incoming Student Officers at JMSU.

Colleagues Julia Daer, Catherine Shillito, Billy Roberts, Megan Chadbourne from the Equality, Outreach & Estates Teams and JMSU are also highly involved in the Youth Empower Conference taking place at the Student Life Building this Friday, which will see 60 pupils from local schools engage in open and frank discussions, exploring what racism means to them.

Keynote speaker and championship boxer Natasha Jonas will introduce the event, which will be followed by creative workshops throughout the afternoon.

The week-long programme of events, organised by Yaw Owusu and colleagues at Culture Liverpool and Liverpool City Council in partnership with LJMU, started with a dinner and award ceremony hosted by the first Black Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson at the weekend. The ‘invite-only’ evening celebrated, honoured and awarded local leaders and organizations for their contributions to progressing equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Find out more about Liverpool Against Racism.