Student Success Festival: SSF 2020: Vitrual Treasure Hunt!

Magid Magid is a Somali-British justice activist, author and a former elected politician. He was a Green Party MEP representing Yorkshire & the Humber at the European Parliament and was previously the youngest ever Lord Mayor of his beloved city, Sheffield. Magid was recently named one of TIME’s 100 rising stars shaping the future of the world. Magid is also a custard connoisseur.

Mark Thomas is a comedian, presenter, political satirist and journalist from south London. He is best known for his political and social activism, including costing one councillor and one government minister their job, changing the law on tax avoidance to bring in £1,000,000s for HMRC, and taking the police to court three times (he won twice!) Mark describes himself as a "libertarian anarchist", and has written five books and won three human rights awards for his work.  He also won a Guinness World Record for holding 20 protests in 24 hours.

Paul is responsible for international mobility opportunities at Middlesex, meaning study exchanges with international partners (did you know we have over 100 of them?), but also funded international work placements, campus transfers, and other fantastic chances to explore the world!

Having an international experience can be so much fun and definitely life-changing, but it also develops valuable skills such as intercultural awareness, resilience and flexibility, all key attributes employers are seeking. Like so many people, when Paul was a student it never occurred to him to check out international mobility, and he wouldn’t have thought it was for him anyway – but how wrong he was! Anyone can do it, including you!

Jeannette Ng is originally from Hong Kong but now lives in Durham, UK. Her MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies fed into an interest in medieval and missionary theology, which in turn spawned her love for writing gothic fantasy with a theological twist. She used to sell costumes out of her garage. She runs live roleplay games, performs hair wizardry and sometimes has opinions on the internet, including in Foreign Policy Magazine.
​She has won the Astounding for Best New Writer in 2019 and the Sydney J Bounds Award (Best Newcomer) in the British Fantasy Awards 2018.

Dr Rima Saini is a Lecturer in Sociology at Middlesex University London and co-lead on the BA Sociology and BA Sociology with Criminology programmes. Her research focuses on the socio-political identities and lived experiences of the British South Asian middle classes. She is a co-lead on decolonisation in the School of Law at Middlesex University London, a member of the MDX Anti-Racist Network Steering Group, and has published critical commentary in Political Studies Review, Political Quarterly and the LSE Impact Blog on the topic of decolonisation in the political sciences and higher education in general.

Dr Azumah Dennis has been working within the subject of Education for a number of years, both in HE and FE institutions and currently works for the Open University as a Senior Lecturer in the field of Education, Leadership and Management. Her main research areas are:

Post-16 policy, professionalism and practice

Leading and managing quality in vocational education

Teacher education, critical pedagogy, ethics and social justice

She has written papers on Leadership and Ethical Action; Measuring Quality, and Worthwhile knowledge.

Having first trained as a Psychiatric Nurse, Julie worked in Further Education Colleges for some twenty years, in the role of lecturer and in student support and customer services management. She has been working in the Middlesex University community where she led the set-up of UniHelpDesk in 2012, managed the Welcome and Induction period in 2016, and is now Head of Student Support and Wellbeing, and Deputy Director of Library and Student Support.

Dr Anastasia Christou is Associate Professor of Sociology and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Anastasia has a long-term interest in issues of inequality, diversity and exclusion as regards gender, class, race and ethnicity in migrant, minority, youth and ageing groups. Anastasia has written three books and has a long history of research into humanities and social sciences.

Alan is the Director for MDXworks - the Careers and Employability Service at Middlesex University. He has prioritised building a support provision that promotes and celebrates self-actualisation and the ability for students to confidently articulate their ‘story’. He is passionate about developing tomorrow’s talent in today’s world of work and promotes the objectives and benefits of a project-based learning approach – providing businesses the opportunity to tap into the innovation, creativity and critical thinking of the student community – while providing those students the critical experience they need to transition into the workplace. A strong advocate and activist within the diversity and social mobility arena – he has led a number of award-winning initiatives focused on inclusion; equality and diversity - and is fully committed to ensuring MDX students develop real skills for the future and the ability to evidence and articulate their potential and capability to take their rightful place in society. 

Dr Theo Gilbert is an Associate Professor in Teaching and Learning, at the University of Hertfordshire’s Learning and Teaching Innovation Centre (LTIC).  His applied research translates rich, current scholarship on the psychobiological basis of compassion’s reasoning (not emotional) capacity to notice (not normalise) distress or disadvantaging of self and/or others -  and act in wise/smart ways to reduce it. He asserts it is a priority that this frames the HE curriculum in practical ways for teaching, learning and assessment to address students’ mental health, staff workloads (and mental health), and the BAME gap - with promising evidence in these areas in studies so far. 

As Senior Customer Success Manager at LinkedIn, Funmi works with learning technologies to empower organisations and individuals to achieve their greatest good. LinkedIn Learning is an online educational platform similar to SkillShare. LinkedIn Learning is free to access for all Middlesex students and has over 16,000 Business, Design and Technology courses. Access anytime, anywhere.

Mehmet Ali Dikerdem is one of the three founders of the Race & Culture Programme which ran from 1995-2001 and had the distinction of being one of the first Black Studies courses set up in British HE to `decolonise’ the curriculum. His research interests include historical sociology of Colonialism and Imperialism, Political Sociology, Practice Theory and the History and Politics of the Middle East.