Mixed-media textile designer and finalist at Loughborough University. My work includes illustrations, three- dimensional textile art and print designs.

Hiya! I'm Sophie, I'm a first-year undergrad Fine Art student and I did the illustration for the piece on Jazmin Sawyers and Beth Dobbin. My inspiration came from the strength of the pictured athletes and the 2014 Always campaign #LikeAGirl. If you want to check it out, I post more of my work on my Instagram @thefaearecoming.

Ngozi "N/A" Oparah is a queer, first-generation Nigerian-American writer. Her other work has appeared in Madwomen in the Attic, QXotc, Fictional International, ANMLY and other journals. N/A has received residencies in writing, art, and narrative media from Can Serrat in El Bruc, Spain and Proyecto Lingüistico Quetzalteco in Xela, Guatemala. N/A holds an MFA in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts and a B.S. in Neuroscience & Philosophy from Duke University. She is the Director of Community Programs at StoryCenter, a digital storytelling non-profit in Berkeley, CA. She is studying towards a PhD at Loughborough University in Creative Arts and Design in the UK. Her novella, Thick Skin, is forthcoming with KERNPUNKT Press (April 2021). Order it here: http://www.kernpunktpress.com/store/p26/thickskin.html

After first being employed at the University as a researcher in 1992 in what was then the Department of European Studies (now Politics and International Studies), to work on a project investigating the operation of gender in parliamentary selection for Westminster, I moved into the Department of Social Sciences, where over the following years I worked on a succession of projects all of which also had a focus on gender (for example the ‘Purse or Wallet’ study with Professor Ruth Lister, now Baroness Lister of Burtersett, CBE). The poem ‘Academic Sisters’ was written during those early days, when a number of departmental researchers working on different projects were housed together in the James France building, all learning how to recruit participants, conduct fieldwork, analyse qualitative data, write journal articles – and support each other. A Sociological Research Online article from this period (‘Research Identities: Reflections of a Contract Researcher’) tells it how it was. 

For the last ten years, I have been a Visiting Fellow in Qualitative Research in what is now the School of Social Sciences and Humanities. During this period, I developed an interest in autoethnography as a research method, publishing articles in journals such as Cultural Sociology, Sociological Research Online, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, Age & Society and Time & Society. My most recent publication is an edited a collection of autoethnographies (available in the library;) by three generations of women from predominantly working class backgrounds, examining experiences of class, gender and ethnicity 

I am a Product Design Engineering student at Loughborough university and hope to work in the entertainment industry after graduation.

I started writing poetry in year 7 after being encouraged by my form tutor.

I now post my poems on Instagram, @augustus.a.f 

I am a Club 6 member supporting Water for People.

I am from Lagos, Nigeria and look forward to spending a Covid-free summer back home.

I am currently a Doctoral Researcher in the English department at Loughborough University and I research women’s short fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I look at the way women writers invoke the sense of touch in their writing to advance what was known then as the ‘New Woman’ movement, which sought to directly address the double standards in the patriarchal norms of Victorian society. You can read more about my research here: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/english/staff/isobel-sigley/.

It is important to me that my research is not just feminist in its content but also its practice, and therefore I strive to have an inclusive and diverse bibliography, as I outline in my Wave Press piece. This has led me to the works of 1890s writer Alice Dunbar-Nelson, a mixed race activist from New Orleans, whose Creole tales criticise white patriarchal conventions against the grain of the ‘uplift narrative’. My favourite feminist text is a short story by Beatrice Harraden from 1894 titled ‘A Bird on its Journey’; Harraden pokes fun at the hypocritical upper classes, who mistakenly identify a world renowned pianist as a working class piano tuner.

My name is Leah Langley, and I am a final year Sport and Exercise Psychology Undergrad. I have always had a passion for writing and journalism and I am hoping to complete my Master's Degree in Sports Journalism. Women are often an overlooked population when it comes to their difficulties with mental health despite the statistics being so stark, and so I wanted to shed some light on the disparities with my article. As someone who suffers with mental health difficulties, I wanted to be a part of the conversation and hopefully bring some attention to an area that is often shied away from.

Adèle MacKinlay became the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development for Loughborough University in August 2018. 

Previously Adèle worked at Pace University and College Avenue Student Loans in the US. Prior to her family’s move to the US, she was HRD and COO at Aston University. Her early career was spent in Financial Services.

Adèle has a BA Joint Honours in Modern Languages, an MSc in Organisational Leadership, and is a Fellow of the CIPD.

Adèle is a Trustee on the Board of the Encephalitis Society.

David Wilson arrived at Loughborough University in 2000 to study Electronic Engineering. On their first day they were given a bottle opener that said “Loughborough is for life!” which they thought was a bit strange at the time. They’ve been here ever since.  As a student they joined the LSU LGB Association (there was no T back then) and were part of the team that set up and ran LSU’s rock night, “Subversion”. Joining the IT department in 2003, David later became involved with the union for Academic and Academic-Related Staff, UCU, and the Staff LGBT Group.  As the group’s Co-chair and then Chair David added the “+” to its name to acknowledge other less recognised identities and worked with the University to establish the Trans and Non-Binary Working Group, to improve support for staff and students, and the LGBT Awareness course for staff.

 They currently manage the Application Support team in IT Services and have a part-time secondment to People and Organisational Development to work on Equality Diversity and Inclusion initiatives.  David was raised with a strong sense of social justice and loves working in an environment where that is valued and can be put that to good use.

Hi there! My name’s Amie, and I’m a lover of dogs, healthy communication, and pansexual power suits. I wrote the piece I Can’t See Him In A Tutu and the image of my partner (shoutout to Rahul) in a tutu still lives rent free in my mind. I enjoy pineapple on pizza, pan-frying my toasties, and crushing the patriarchy with my 4.5” heels. Your partner’s gender does not define your sexuality and you can find me @amiewoodyatt chatting on IG or tweeting about such things (also mental health, being in an interracial relationship, and screaming at my masters).

I am an illustrator, graphic designer and cartoonist from China, and I identify as non-binary and ace. Currently I'm in my write-up year of my PhD study in Loughborough University and my research looks into the representation of Chinese ethnic minority people in a contemporary setting. I only came across the term ‘feminism’ in the first year of my PhD and I appreciate the opportunity of knowing this field of study, as now I have realised how gendered the society is.

My comic is inspired by a ‘side-product’ of my PhD research. While conducting the literature review, I have found that there is gender-based bias in the representation of Chinese ethnic minority people. For example, in visual representations (e.g., in illustrations and photographs) and entertainment-based representations (e.g., in ethnic tourism and video games), the ethnic people shown are more likely to be women. On the other hand, when the ethnic people are represented verbally, such as in the form of textual information in textbooks, they are more likely to be men. Some argue that this is mainly because women’s ethnic dress is prettier and more symbolic than men’s, and dress is the main indicator of ethnicity, so using women in the images could convey the message better. This could be one reason, but I argue that the male gaze also plays a role in this: when the representational image is designed to be ‘looked at’, they tend to be images of women. In fact, men’s ethnic dress can be as interesting and exotic as women’s, but why can’t we see more representations of them in pictures?

My name is Phoebe Eaves and I'm a Graphic Communication and Illustration finalist here at Loughborough University.  I worked on the illustration accompanying Amie's 'I can't see him in a Tutu' article, drawing on her experiences in the article about how, so people seem to always want to give the unwarranted opinions on a person's lifestyle. I enjoy drawing people and take inspiration from drawing the human form, and bold colour. 

An organisation I feel strongly about would be the Okra Project which help black trans and non-binary people. theokraproject.com

More of my work can be found on my Instagram: instagram.com/phlavours/

and my website: phlavours.com/

Hi, I am Tom, a Civil Engineering student currently doing my industrial placement as an Assistant Design Manager on HS2. I did study art at A Level but only picked up Procreate for iPad in October 2020, so I am still somewhat new to digital art and haven't found out what all the shiny buttons and brushes do just yet. That said, I came up with this piece after discovering the origins of Medusa, and that her snake hair was part of a punishment from the Goddess Athena after she was raped in Athena's temple by Poseidon. It reminded me of a recent BBC article I read about virginity tests performed on rape victims in Pakistan the tests are not founded in any genuine science and they villainize the victims in the same manor Medusa was. Ultimately, I made this piece to revisit an old yet relevant story that shares the same themes of victim blaming evident in the stories of many women today and I learnt a lot in the process of doing that.  

I’m a second-year Fine Art student, and my work particularly focuses on the normalised language and objectification of women’s bodies that we have to deal with in day-to-day life. Expressing my frustration and difficulty with these experiences through a satirical practice has been cathartic and hearing other women’s experiences to inform my practice has been comforting as it created a feeling of solidarity. My other art can be found on instagram at @caitbinksart

Muslim women are constantly placed outside the brackets when regarding liberation. We are heavily mis-represented in the media as being 'oppressed' by our hijabs and religion, when in fact it is the very veil we wear, and our beliefs that empower us. When celebrating International Women’s Day, we must remember to shed the Eurocentric bias and accept that the experiences of all women are legitimate. 

The Loughborough Islamic society are hosting various events over the next two weeks with the intention of showing the true beauty of Islam which is often missed. Join us for a fun Arabic calligraphy workshop, a talk on the rights of women in Islam or an evening of spoken word poetry. For more information visit our Instagram: www.instagram.com/lboroisoc

Instagram: www.instagram.com/afreen.art