Nothing About Us, Without Us

Ethnic Minority and LGBTQIA+ Voices Out Loud and Proud

Hosted by the LGBTQIA+ staff network, Spectrum and the Ethnic Minority staff network, EmbRace, the theme for the first ever intersectional conference is: Nothing about us, without us: ethnic minority and LGBTQIA+ voices out loud and proud.

Date: Wednesday 4 June 2025 
Time: 9.30am to 4pm, followed by a post-conference social from 4pm to 6pm 
Location: LSE The Marshall Building (room 2.10) 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY 

We will be joined by a range of expert speakers throughout the day across two panel discussions and one keynote speaker, who will speak to historical belongings, activism and organisation and the current state of rights in the UK, and how we build solidarities, representation, and intersectional awareness in the future. We will also have a creative breakout session, where attendees will be invited to explore building solidarities and utopian futures through serious lego play! 

With all of this thought work, there will be teas and coffees a plenty, and lunch. 

We will wrap up with a post-conference social in the George IV featuring a drag performance. 

This conference is run by LSE staff networks Spectrum and EmbRace and is open to LSE Staff and Students only. 

This is a valuable opportunity for us to bring staff networks together, for attendees to meet people from different backgrounds, and to increase our intersectional bonds across LSE.  

Speakers

Sacha Coward (he/him): Sacha has worked in museums and heritage for over 10 years. For the past three years, he has been freelancing as an historian, public speaker, tour guide and researcher. He has run LGBTQ+ focused tours for museums, cemeteries, archives, and cities around the world. Sacha is passionate about queer history, mythology, folklore and storytelling in all their many forms. Queer As Folklore is his first book and Sunday Times bestseller. Sacha will speak at the panel about historical belongings which will be followed by an opportunity to buy the book at the coffee break. 

Dr Anna Sulan Masing (she/her) will be joining us for panel 1: historical belongings and unbelongings! She is an academic, poet and journalist. She co-founded SOURCED, a public research platform that explores our global food and drink systems; and is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Cheese magazine. Anna Sulan’s 10-part narrative podcast Taste of Place, by Whetstone Radio Collective, explores colonialism and nostalgia through the history of pepper; and her 2025 podcast To Be Delicious: a cultural context of MSG in Britain by Lecker, looks at ESEA food culture, diaspora, racism, and the future of msg and umami. Her debut book, Chinese And Any Other Asian, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in February 2025. Anna Sulan has written in a number of publications, including BBC World Table, CNN, Guardian, Foodism, Good Beer Hunting, Waitrose, Apartamento. Her work has been shortlisted at the Guild of Food Writers and Fortnum & Mason Food Awards. She has spoken at various symposiums around the world on the topic of drinks, sustainability, heritage, gender and identity. Her doctorate was investigating storytelling practices of the Iban, a South East Asian indigenous people of which Anna Sulan is part of. Her PhD looked at how those practices migrated, and how identity changes when space and location changes. This looked at the intersection of performance, gender, farming practices, and identity. 

Anne Onwusiri (they/them): Anne Onwusiri is a committed and passionate advocate for diversity and inclusivity. They founded 'Black Girls Ruck', a community network and initiative aimed at increasing the involvement of Black women and non binary people in rugby and addressing issues of racial and gender equity in sports. Alongside their work with Black Girls Ruck, Anne is a key figure at Stonewall, where they play a crucial role in advancing LGBTQ+ rights, notably through initiatives like the Young Leaders Programme, empowering young LGBTQ+ individuals to become future advocates and leaders in the community. Anne’s multifaceted efforts reflect a deep commitment to creating inclusive spaces where everyone can thrive. Through their leadership and vision, they continue to focus on driving meaningful change in the realm of social justice. 

Joselene Peres (she/they): Joselene is an experienced EDI specialist and a passionate social justice advocate with a rich background in higher education, social housing, media, and community leadership.  Born under apartheid South Africa, Jo’s lifelong commitment to equity and LGBTQ+ rights spans over two decades of impactful work. They lead inclusive strategies, serve as a Board of trustees for UK Black Pride and the Kaleidoscope Trust, and amplify marginalised voices through storytelling—most notably via their pandemic-era podcast and as Associate Producer of 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture

Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (she/her): Dr Shola is our keynote speaker, social justice advocate, political and women’s rights activist lawyer, tv broadcaster and author of This is Why I Resist. Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu is a British born and Nigerian political and women’s rights activist, taught intersectional feminism to female refugees and asylum seekers; scrutinizes government policies from a gender and diversity inclusion perspective; and co-organises women's marches and social campaigns. She is also a New York Attorney and Solicitor of England and Wales with broad expertise in the financial services industry, writer, public speaker and political commentator featured in mainstream and online media. She founded the Women in Leadership publication as a platform to drive positive change on topical issues that impact women globally through inspiring personal leadership journeys; and established She@LawTalks to promote women and BAME leadership in the legal profession through universities and secondary schools. An academic enthusiast, she has an Executive MBA (Cambridge); PhD (Birkbeck); LLM (London School of Economics & Political Science); MA (Westminster) and LLB Hons (Buckingham University). Dr Shola is married and has three daughters. She is the grand-daughter of the late Nigerian Monarch of Ogere-Remo, Oba Alfred Obafuwa Babington-Ashaye, Legunsen III, the Ologere of Ogere and the daughter of the late Prince Adebajo Babington-Ashaye. 

Manny Valery (he/him) will be joining us for panel 2: activism and organising: where are we now? He has 10+ years of leading Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives across academia and private sector. Manny is an LSE alumnus, having obtained an MSc in Information Systems and Digital Innovation from The London School of Economics in 2023, where he researched improving governance in big tech & AI incidents. In tandem, Manny was a member of LSE's LGBTQ+ Steering Committee and was President of the LGBTQ+ Society for 200 members, which received the gold award for active engagement from LSESU. Prior to LSE, Manny was a technology consultant at IBM based in Washington, DC, USA, and worked with local IBM executives to lead various EDI initiatives, including the first local Diversity Summit. Manny is a first-generation Caribbean-American (Jamaican & Haitian) from Brooklyn, NY.

Timetable

Time 

Event 

Room 

9.30am to 10am 

Teas/coffees/breakfast/registration 

Outside MAR.2.10 

10am to 10.15am 

Opening speeches and welcome 

MAR.2.10 

10.15am to 11.15am 

Panel 1 – historical belongings and unbelongings

 

11.15am to 11.30am 

Tea and coffee break and book sale

Outside MAR.2.10 

11.30am to 12.30pm 

Panel 2 – activism and organising: where are we now?

MAR.2.10 

12.30pm to 1.30pm 

Lunch  

Outside MAR.2.10 

1.30pm to 2.45pm 

Lego Serious Play Workshop: building solidarities for utopian futures 

MAR.2.10 

2.45pm to 4pm 

Keynote Speech, reflections and futures 

MAR.2.10 

4pm to 6pm 

Intersectional Drag Show 

George IV 

 

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