This is a special episode of the first series of the Kaleidoscope Alumni Network podcast series Ad Lib.

Patricia Hill Collins, author of Black Feminist Thought (1990) was at the University of St Andrews in October 2024 to give a lecture as part of the Andrew Carnegie Lecture Series. During her visit, she spoke to some St Andrews students and recent graduates on various topics for this episode.

You can access a transcript of this episode using the following link: https://kan.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/listen/

In this recording, you will hear the voices of:

Patricia Hill Collins, Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Charles Phelps Taft Professor Emerita of African American Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She was awarded the 2023 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture and is the author of Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment (1990).

Eden Igwe (MA 2023). Eden is a writer, filmmaker and artist currently working on projects for the Horniman Museum and at Orleans House Gallery in southwest London where she holds an artist residency. Eden is interested in notionsof identity, belonging and nature and the excavation/exploration of a black female gaze in British cinema. Her output largely consists of documentaries, poetry and narrative short films, with experiments in performed text and artist moving image on the horizon. As a writer, Eden’s poetry has recently been published through the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, as a participant of ICA Young Creatives.

Deborah - Adenike Shonibare (Class of 2025). Nike is a final year English and Social Anthropology student at the University of St Andrews. Passionate about Black diasporic advocacy, she has served as Alumni and Outreach Officer for the African Caribbean Society and manages a care-package initiative for South Sudanese mothers through Enactus UK. Her work spans editorial and media interests, with a focus on amplifying underrepresented voices. She has written on topics including hair politics, inner-city subcultures, and mental health. Nike recently worked with The Line, a public art trail in London, and hopes to pursue a career in publishing and media celebrating Black British culture.

⁠Sally Mubarak⁠, Graduate student. Sally is a PhD candidate in Classics at the University of St Andrews, researching war and trauma in the Roman Republic, with a focus on military expansion, identity, and marginalised groups. She aims to expand understandings of ancient warfare and trauma beyond Western-centric narratives.  Her work critically engages with colonial research frameworks in the study of history. Her family background and lived experience shapes her distinct academic perspective.

Zahra Gueye (Class of 2025).  Zahra is a final-year student of International Relations and Management, actively involved in student leadership at St Andrews. As president of the African Caribbean Society, she has spent three years championing diverse representation. She also served as Equality,Diversity, and Inclusion Representative for the School of Management, leading a curriculum decolonisation project and authoring a research-informed report. Her academic interests include Black and intersectional feminist theory, andAfrican and Caribbean development, with a focus on decolonial approaches. After graduation, Zahra will join Goldman Sachs in London, while continuing her independent research and writing on decolonial and postcolonial theory.

Credits 

Recorded on 8 Oct 2024 at the Laidlaw Music Centre by Jonathan Kemp.

Audio editing and transcription by Kimberly Rampasan.

Produced by Catherine Dunford.

Music by Cruen from Uppbeat:https://uppbeat.io/t/cruen/city-streets