The sixth annual Difference Festival, which took place across the University of Westminster from 27 February to 3 March 2023, saw the University’s community explore global challenges and solutions in a variety of formats.
The Difference Festival is a week-long celebration promoting the work of colleagues, students, alumni and friends of the University of Westminster, whilst honouring the history and roots of the University.
This year’s Festival focussed on global issues and how universities can gain insights, knowledge and tools to challenge and find answers to existing and future challenges.
Thirteen events took place in a wide variety of formats, from interactive workshops through concerts to film screenings and exhibitions curated by academic colleagues across the University.
On Tuesday 28 February, an event called Collaboration for a Fairer Westminster took place at the University’s Fyvie Hall. Professor Gerda Wielander, Associate Head of the University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, spoke to Pedro Wrobel, Executive Director of Innovation and Change at Westminster City Council, about how the Council is going about achieving its vision for the future of Westminster. This includes more social housing, reducing carbon emissions, an improved economy and more employment opportunities.
On Wednesday 1 March, Dr Federica Mazzara, Reader in Cultural Studies, and Dr Anne Viswanathan, Immigration Lawyer and Director of Bail for Immigration Detainees, Westminster Law School, presented their talk Trapped: Immobility in Times of Migration at Fyvie Hall. The talk, which included Shahram Khosravi, Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, and Touhid (an invented name), a former client of Bail for Immigration Detainees, explored the effect policy and regulation has on people looking to migrate. The talk explored the sense of disbelonging people who seek migration often feel to the surroundings they are unable to move away from. It also looked into the experiences of people of Caribbean descent in the United Kingdom in the wake of the Windrush scandal.
On Thursday 2 March, Dr Lucy Bond, Principal Lecturer in Humanities, led a talk at Fyvie Hall called Imagining a Fairer World. In an age defined by urgent social and environmental crises – from pandemics to war, climate change to resource depletion – the talk explored how we can move towards a fairer, cleaner future. By examining the most urgent questions of our time, this roundtable discussion brought artists, activists, advocates, and academics together to explore how different professional and disciplinary perspectives can provide opportunities to challenge inequality and facilitate social and environment change. The following workshop allowed audience members to develop creative and critical approaches to imagining a more just world. This will be also incorporated in the new Culture, Environment and Social Change BA Honours course, which Dr Bond will lead and will launch in September 2023.
On Friday 3 March, a screening of Harmony After the War: Music and War took place at Fyvie Hall. Produced by Pablo Tasco, the film documents a social initiative that helps war-torn communities to rebuild, through music. The event, which involved live music, was led by Dr Alessandro Columbu, lecturer in Arabic Languages and Cultures in the University’s School of Humanities. It was produced by Juan delGado, creative producer of Qisetna, an organisation that helps preserve the cultural and oral history of Syria.
Live music at the Harmony After the War film screening
The Difference Festival brochure
Students helping at an event at Fyvie Hall
Other events in the festival included Co-creating Cultural Space for Black Male Students, led by Dr Alison Fixsen, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Chair of the University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Research and Ethics Committee; Technology and Diversity: A University of Westminster Roundtable led by Dr Nitasha Kaul, Reader in Politics and International Relations; and Fighting Superbugs: Join the Fight to Make a Difference!, led by Dr Manal Mohammed, Senior Lecturer in the University’s School of Life Sciences.
A full programme of events from the Festival is available on the Difference Festival’s website.
Professor Wielander said: “It was amazing to be able to host such a diverse range of talks, film screenings and exhibitions during the week. It has been great to see how the Difference Festival has grown, with its breadth increasing year on year. I’d like to say thank you to the academics, members of the University community and to everyone that attended the events for making this week such a success.”
Find out about the University’s array of public events.
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