Naa Annoa Abekah-Mensah, Megan Coe & Raquel Scarpa-Gebara
Highly Commended, Access & Outreach
Raquel, Annoa and Megan have created a podcast series, “Shade in Cambridge”, which provides a platform for stories, experiences and perspectives of students from racialised minorities, particularly at the University of Cambridge. The idea emerged from their involvement in the steering group for “Let’s Talk about Race and Racism”, a College initiative intended to inspire new dialogues about race and racism. Topics so far have included colourism, decolonising the curriculum, the intersection of race and class, COVID-19 and inequality and – in a particularly lively episode – the broader implications of the backlash against a holiday advert depicting a Black British family.
The podcast foregrounds the voices and perspectives of students from groups underrepresented in Cambridge. While these conversations address difficult issues, they also make clear that the student hosts and their guests have found friends and supportive peers in Cambridge. Raquel, Annoa and Megan have put a huge amount of time, thought and creativity into the episodes released so far.
In 2020-21, Annoa and Megan were first-year Undergraduates reading Human, Social & Political Sciences, while Raquel was in the first year of her PhD in Education Impact Analysis in the Faculty of Education. All three are at Wolfson College.