Hi everyone!I am excited to share with you our new project – Alumni Conversations. This year has been extraordinary in many different ways for all of us and has provided much to contemplate and discuss. Each of us has experienced the global events of the past couple months in a different way. We believe that coming together and sharing our experiences will not only initiate important discussions but will also help us get to know each other as Laidlaw Alumni in a meaningful way. Alumni Conversations will utilize the ‘Conversations’ tool on the Laidlaw Scholars Network to discuss a topic of global importance each month - to share our thoughts, experiences and findings. This online discussion will be followed by an informal Zoom meeting at the end of the month to share some highlights of the discussion and to network with our fellow Laidlaw Alumni in an informal setting. THIS MONTH’S TOPIC: Black Lives Matter - What Have We Learnt? The tragic death of George Floyd was one of the many examples that brought to surface our sad reality where racism continues to be rooted deep within the society. The BLM movement took social media by storm, got people protesting in the streets, raised awareness and sparked conversations about racism, discrimination and inequality. Yet, only weeks after the mass protests and social media campaigns very few people continue to voice the topic on social media. What can we conclude from this? Has the BLM movement been successful? How do we measure the success of BLM and other campaigns aimed at raising awareness and bringing about social change? What was the role of social media? What about media in general? What was the most important lesson or take-home message that you got from your experience of the BLM movement? We would love to hear your thoughts about these questions and others related to BLM in the replies below. If you’ve found an interesting article/podcast/video or if you have any personal experiences that you would like to share, please leave a reply below. The date for the informal Zoom meeting will be announced soon, so stay tuned!
Recent Comments
This is a very insightful article, Emma! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I really like the focus on being practical. This was touched upon over and over during the conference, and I do agree that in many cases great ideas do not have much impact simply because they are not applied in practice.
I particularly agree with the point that we should not wait for someone else to promote us or give more responsibility, but to seek opportunities to do more ourselves. This is something that I am also trying to work on, especially as I try to make my first steps in the transition from university to work. And I'm very excited to be working on creating new opportunities in our newly forming collaboration - not just for us but also other scholars as well!