Theme: Intersect

TEDxUCLWomen celebrates the achievements of women and girls, and showcases work that breaks down barriers caused by gender and its intersected oppressions. This year's theme is INTERSECT, in all its interpretations.

On Saturday 29th October, alongside 200+ TEDxWomen events across the world, TEDxUCLWomen will continue to be a platform for individuals from a range of different fields.

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

Bethany Koby

Bethany Koby is a mum, CEO, designer, art director and artist. (And sometimes all five at once.) She creates products and experiences for a more positive and collaborative future. In 2012 Bethany co-founded Technology Will Save Us. It was based on a radical premise: What if kids could build the technology they use, and learn more about technology in the process? With her husband and co-founder, Daniel Hirschmann, Bethany created the now iconic DIY Kits, the most accessible (and fun) way for kids, families, and educators to learn, play, and invent with technology. As the CEO, Bethany is responsible for the company’s strategic growth and partnerships. Perhaps her most important role is making sure every product and service Technology Will Save Us creates directly empowers parents and inspires kids. Her dedication to both is growing Technology Will Save Us into the most accessible technology company in the toy industry, empowering a generation of problem-solvers and future makers

Deb Roach

Twice International pole champion, dancer, aerialist and yogi Deb Roach was born in Australia without her left arm. Deb enjoys pushing the limits of her physicality and exploring the artistic possibilities of her body through contemporary dance, pole dance and circus arts. She views her professional practice as a form of personal enrichment and healing, and as part of the UK’s only integrated circus company Extraordinary Bodies she communicates the joy of exploration to audiences through her work. On "Intersect": "Intersection is everywhere. Ideas, concepts, beings and objects meet others at points which highlight either their commonality, or their difference and individuality. Every time one thing intersects another, we have the opportunity to analyse, recognise, learn and grow."

Funda Ustek

Dr. Funda Ustek is a Researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, at the Department of Sociology. She works on the issue of missing people in statistics. She obtained her Doctorate from University of Oxford, Department of Sociology (2015) on the invisible labour of women workers in the informal sector. She currently works on refugee and migration statistics to understand how mobile populations go missing in official statistics. She is originally from Istanbul, Turkey, and her travels and personal experience as a migrant (in Denmark and the UK) is an ever important inspiration for her work. On "Intersect": “Data is about inclusion and exclusion, through which some things become visible, and others invisible. It is when we think about how these two intersect –those things we include and those we exclude- we come to see other worlds becoming equally possible.”

Jacob V Joyce

Jacob V Joyce is a non binary interdisciplinary artist that disrupts commercial and community spaces with queer and decolonial, creative interventions. Currently working as an illustrator for Global Justice Now, Jacob creates the art work for international human rights campaigns as well as comic books and zines addressing personal and global instances of systemic oppression. As a member of the sorryyoufeeluncomfortable collective and the front person for the band Screaming Toenail, Jacob’s work brings satirical and theatrical critiques to institutional and every day instances of marginalisation. www.jacobvjoyce.com https://screamingtoenail.bandcamp.com/releases

Katie Ghose

Katie Ghose is a barrister and campaigner. Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society since 2010, she has established the Society as the UK’s leading campaign for a better democracy. Previously Katie was Director of the British Institute of Human Rights (2005-2010) where she pioneered new initiatives to bring human rights to life for everyone in the UK. In 2009 she was awarded Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year by the Asian Lawyers’ Association. Katie has worked in parliamentary and public affairs for organisations including Age UK and Citizens Advice and for seven years served as a trustee for LGBT rights charity Stonewall. Katie is a Board member of Fair Vote, a US organisation campaigning for electoral and democratic reform and in 2015 became an Independent Council member at the University of Sussex. On "Intersect": “Intersect says something about our real identity, it is much more layered and complex than immediate visual appearance such as skin colour can ever capture.”

Nicole Crentsil

Nicole Crentsil is the founder and curator of Unmasked Women, an exhibition channelling the Black British female experience through creatives with a focus on mental health. Since her successful exhibition in September, Nicole has been working with local community groups, charities and schools to further continue the much needed conversation about mental health within the Black community. On "Intersect": "Black women are discriminated against in ways that do not fit within the legal categories of either “racism” or “sexism”—but as a combination of both. In relation to mental health, this form of discrimination remains prevalent, simply with how we converse about the topic and assist with further medical help."

Olivia Head

Olivia and Sneh make up Bread & Roses, an award-winning social enterprise helping refugee and asylum seeking women to flourish. Bread & Roses addresses the social and economic isolation that many women experience as a result of the debilitating asylum process in the UK. Using floristry as a tool for self-expression and creativity - but also a means to generate income - Bread & Roses is able to support women who are otherwise overlooked by a society which places disproportionate value upon economic output. On "Intersect": "For Bread & Roses, intersect is building a strong community that learns from and embraces the different experiences of the women within it"

Raheem Mir

Raheem Mir has been training in Kathak for 9/10 years and has been under the tutelage of Gauri Sharm Tripathi and Sujata Banerjee. Upon discovering Kathak, the art abhinaya has always been something that caught his eye and spoke to him more so than any other aspect of Kathak because of the embodiment and change in persona when performing. This had also supported his academic background whilst studying a postgraduate degree at Royal Holloway University of London, in which he explored gender studies, cultural studies and gender in performance. The idea of combining gender performance and Kathak was almost a completely fluid process as many times one has to be many different people, so why not just embody the representation fully by also adorning appropriate clothing and so on?

Sneh Jani

Olivia and Sneh make up Bread & Roses, an award-winning social enterprise helping refugee and asylum seeking women to flourish. Bread & Roses addresses the social and economic isolation that many women experience as a result of the debilitating asylum process in the UK. Using floristry as a tool for self-expression and creativity - but also a means to generate income - Bread & Roses is able to support women who are otherwise overlooked by a society which places disproportionate value upon economic output. On "Intersect": "For Bread & Roses, intersect is building a strong community that learns from and embraces the different experiences of the women within it"

Tschan Andrews

Tschan is a activist a writer and a former model who happens to be a woman of the international black trans experience and will use any platform to campaign for the inclusivity awareness and human rights for not just that group of the population, but for all as it affects us all as a collective eventually on a conscious level.