Theme: Momentum

On Thursday 28th May, there will be hundreds of TEDxWomen events taking place around the world, all of which will be celebrating the theme ‘Momentum’, in conjunction with TEDWomen in America. We at TEDxUCLWomen, will be part of this movement. TEDxUCLWomen is an all-day event , which in addition to live streaming a session of TEDWomen from California, will feature 3 of our own independently curated sessions, filled with incredible speakers.

University College London
Gower Street
London, London, City of, WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom

Bridget Minamore

Writer and Poet

Bridget Minamore is a writer who teaches drama and poetry workshops around the country, mostly for women and young people. She has an English degree from UCL and is currently working on a multi-platform poetry project to explore ideas of loss, home and relationships, called Losing My Last First Tooth. Bridget is part of the creative team behind Brainchild Festival and in 2013 was shortlisted to be London’s first Young Poet Laureate. She was recently chosen as one of The Hospital Club’s Emerging Creatives for 2015 and has started working with My Body Back Project, that aims to empower women who have suffered sexual violence. Passionate about women’s rights and modern-day feminism, Bridget has worked with Plan UK’s Day of the Girl Campaign, and spoken at three Inspirational Women’s Conferences for school girls and the Southbank Centre’s WOW Festival.

Emma Dabiri

Visual Sociology PhD Researcher

Emma Dabiri is a visual sociology PhD researcher at Goldsmiths, and teaching fellow in the Africa Department at SOAS. As a cultural commentator she is frequently invited to contribute to discussions relating to Africa and the African Diaspora, on topics ranging from futures, to gender, feminism, identities, the politics of beauty, literature, and film. She has published in a number of academic journals, as well as in the national press and is one of the BBC’s Expert Voices. She tweets @TheDiasporaDiva.

Geraldine Horan

Linguist

Dr Geraldine Horan is a Senior Lecturer in German Language and Linguistics at UCL. Her research focuses on gender and language, political discourse and taboo language, and she has published on a range of linguistic topics, including the language of Nazi women, the social function of cursing and swearing in English and German, and linguistic strategies of humour in the German parliament. In her current project she investigates the characteristics of anti-feminist discourse in the early twentieth century.

Hoda Ali

Nurse in a Sexual Health and an FGM Survivor

Hoda is a nurse in a Sexual Health and HIV clinic. She has dedicated her Professional life to raising awareness of FGM, focused on ensuring girls are treated with dignity and compassion when they encounter health care professionals in the NHS. Hoda is a survivor of FGM who voices the pain, comforts the victims and campaigns to protect the girls. Hoda trusts in life and a future and gives hope to FGM survivors.

Ines Pineda-Torra

Scientist

Dr Ines Pineda-Torra is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Medicine at UCL. Her passion for science and research took her from her native Spain to The Netherlands (Utrecht University), France (Pasteur Institute in Lille), the US (New York University) and now the UK. Not bad for someone who was told by she would “never be able to do any proper scientific research” when she was in school. She works on how a specific group of receptors controls fat metabolism, aiming to develop more efficient drugs to combat cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. When she’s not busy doing research-related activities, she leads the Athena SWAN team in the Division of Medicine to advance and promote women’s careers in science. She is also part of the UCL’s “Inspiring Women in Science speakers” and talks to schools in the London area to encourage girls with a passion for science to follow their dreams, and pursue a career in science. She has also started a similar program in Madrid.

Jennie Price

Chief Executive of Sport England

Jennie is Chief Executive of Sport England, the Government Agency responsible for grassroots sport. Under her leadership, Sport England has helped the number of people who play sport regularly in England grow by 1.6 million people since 2005, the year London won the bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. However, the gap between men and women when it comes to playing sport has remained stubborn at around 2 million for the whole of that period. Last year, in an effort to increase this figure, Jennie led the team that commissioned the award-winning This Girl Can campaign which has received widespread support in England and abroad.

Juno Mac

Sex worker and activist with the Sex Worker Open University

Juno is a sex worker and an activist with the Sex Worker Open University, a sex worker­ led collective based in London & Glasgow. Through their advocacy, they work to support each other through stigma & isolation, demand better working conditions by fighting criminalisation & provide public education around issues relating to sex worker rights.

Larissa Suzuki

Computer Scientist + Entrepeneur

Larissa Suzuki is a passionate and award winning Computer Scientist and Entrepreneur at UCL and DCE-Imperial College Business School. Computing and engineering has always fascinated her. Larissa holds a BSc in Computer Science and a Master (MPhil) in Electrical Engineering from University of Sao Paulo. She studied Management Science and Supply Chain Management, and now is a PhD Candidate in Software Systems Engineering at University College London / DCE Imperial College Business School, and was a Visiting PhD Student at MIT. Since 2006 she’s been actively working towards increasing the representation of women in Computer Science. She is the founder of UCLWE and UCLWE Lean IN, which are dedicated to provide support to the professional, personal and academic development of all women engineers at UCL. She co-organises the London Hopper Colloquium and is part of the poster committee of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Leyla Hussein

Co-founder of Daughters of Eve

Leyla Hussein a trained Psychotherapist and a multi-award winning campaigner on FGM and gender rights including Cosmopolitan Ultimate Campaigner Women of the Year Award 2010, in 2011 she won the Emma Humphrey Award, The Lin Groves Special Award for her work in raising awareness of violence against women and children, she received 2012 True Honour Award “by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Right organisation for recognising her work on preventing honour based violence, protecting victims/survivors and bringing perpetrators to justice. She received World peace and Prosperity Foundation award 2013.

Maryam Pasha

Founder of TEDxEastEnd + Author

Maryam specialises in designing unique and innovative experiences and events to communicate ideas to new audiences – especially around social issues like immigration and women’s rights, but also in the fields of technology and social entrepreneurship. She founded and hosts the annual TEDxEastEnd event and recently curated Inspiration Centraal, a festival of ideas for start-ups in Shoreditch. Her training is in psychology and refugee care, and her experience includes social entrepreneurship, online communications and design, and running a charity to help disadvantaged women reach their career goals. She is currently working on her first book, The Impostor, which will be published in 2016.

Ollie O'Neill

Poet

Ollie O'Neill is a poet and performer, and has just been published for the first time in the Outspoken Anthology. After winning the national youth slam championships in 2013 she has gone on to perform in venues such as Soho Theatre, Institute of Contemporary Arts, and The Royal Festival Hall. In 2014 she was commissioned to run a workshop for Girl Effect, a charity that aims to put an end to FGM and child marriages worldwide, and also shadowed SLAMbassadors workshops in a secondary school in Brent. She is passionate about feminism and wider social justice, and her work often tackles these issues. She tweets at @oliviacmoneill

Pavan Amara

Founder of the Body Back Project

Pavan Amara is a nurse and journalist who founded the ‘My Body Back Project’ which supports women who have experienced sexual violence. For more information you can go to www.mybodybackproject.com

Raquel Siganporia

Vice Chair for the Spinal Injuries Association

Raquel is an Associate Solicitor and Head of Bolt Burdon Kemp’s Spinal Injury department. Raquel is proud to be Vice Chair for the SIA (Spinal Injuries Association). She was also Patient Representative on a specialist panel tasked with developing and drafting NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) Guidelines on pressure ulcers (published April 2014). Raquel is a recognised and respected speaker on issues surrounding spinal cord injury and is frequently invited to lecture by APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers), University College London, and the SIA.

Ruba Huleihel

CEO and co-founder of Birdsong

Ruba is the CEO and co-founder of Birdsong, an online fashion marketplace selling clothing made by women’s organizations – no sweatshops and no photoshop. Previously she completed the Year Here fellowship in social innovation throughout which she worked at a homeless hostel and consulted for Camden Council on children’s services. She also has experience in executive search for private banking (which she hated), education, working with refugees and working with disadvantaged children in Palestine and Israel. She is on the UK Advisory Board of Seeds of Peace, a charity dedicated to conflict resolution. Ruba holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from LSE and a BA in International Relations and Business Administration.

Vanessa Kisuule

Poet

Vanessa Kisuule has won several slam titles including Farrago Schools Out Slam Champotion 2010, Bang Said The Gun Award, Poetry Rivals 2011, Next Generation Slam 2012, Slambassadors 2010 and South West Hammer and Tongue Slam Champion 2012 and most recently The Roundhouse Slam 2014 and Hammer and Tongue National Slam 2014. She has worked with the Southbank Centre, The Bristol City Council and the BBC and represented the UK in two European Slam Championships in Sweden and Belgium. Her debut poetry collection 'Joyriding The Storm' was published in April 2014. She has performed at an array of festivals, including Glastonbury, Lounge on the Farm, Secret Garden Party, Wise Words, Wilderness and Shambala Festival and renowned poetry events such as Blahblahblah at the Bristol Old Vic, Chill Pill in London, Hit the Ode in Birmingham and Shake the Dust in Plymouth.

Wendy Hall

Web Science Pioneer

Dame Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and is the Executive Director of the Web Science Institute. One of the first computer scientists to undertake serious research in multimedia and hypermedia, she has been at its forefront ever since. The influence of her work has been significant in many areas including digital libraries, the development of the Semantic Web, and the emerging research discipline of Web Science. She is currently a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, and is a member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance.