Speakers
Junior Research Fellow Dr Florence Nabwire is a Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and an Honorary Fellow at the MRC Epidemiology Unit. She has a PhD in Biological Science from the University of Cambridge (Queens’ College) and was awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to conduct her PhD research at the MRC Human Nutrition Research Unit. Before moving to the UK in 2013, she practiced as a Public Health Nutritionist at Baylor-Uganda, where she designed and implemented a pioneering programme integrating nutrition and food security into HIV care services, at over 300 government health facilities in 25 districts in Uganda. Her current research at CISL aims to identify drivers of food consumption behaviours of urban households with pregnant women and young children, and to develop strategies for achieving sustained improvement in household diets in the contexts of urbanisation and climate change in sub-Saharan Africa.
Postgraduate student Mariana Gnecco Polania is a biologist from the Colombian Caribbean and is studying for an MPhil in Conservation Leadership. Mariana is the co-founder of Blue Indigo Foundation, an NGO in the Caribbean region that focuses on coastal and marine conservation and restoration. Her career goal is to lead marine ecosystem management projects that are financially sustainable over time and provide alternative livelihoods for local communities, particularly fisherfolk.
Junior Research Fellow Dr Farhana Rahman is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies. Previously, she was a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tokyo, a Non-Residential Fellow at the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies at the University of Auckland, and a Fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center. Farhana holds a PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Gender Studies. Her first book, After the Exodus: Gender and Belonging in Bangladesh’s Rohingya Refugee Camps, is forthcoming mid-2024 with Cambridge University Press. For her extensive contributions to the field of gender and development, Farhana was the 2021 recipient of the Paula Kantor Award from the International Center for Research on Women.
Alumna and former staff member Dr Jennifer Ruggier completed her PhD in History in 2023. Jennifer wrote her thesis on medieval Welsh identity, exploring how Welshness was expressed within a predominantly English history writing tradition. Undertaking her PhD part-time, Jennifer worked throughout. Teaching English as a foreign language when the lockdowns started in 2020, Jennifer began working at Wolfson to support the College's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She then moved into the position of Project Manager in 2021 and supported Wolfson staff to streamline their business processes. She recently took up a position at Cambridge University Press and Assessment as a Junior Business Analyst.
Alumna Sardarni Navleen Kaur MBE completed an Mphil in Educational psychology and social development at Wolfson. Her focus was on educational intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in Sikh children residing in the UK. As the founder of Sahara Sisterhood, Navleen works to provides a safe and secure space to assist women in releasing, relaxing and recuperating from trauma and violence. She is also actively involved with Strengthening Faith Institutions in providing safeguarding training to places of worship. She received an MBE for services to Women and to Interfaith Relations.
Postgraduate student Grace Batley is studying for an MPhil in Education (Knowledge, Power and Politics). Grace is interested in fragmented masculinity in post-industry towns and how this intersects with power. Grace’s research comes from lived experience. In taking a non-traditional route to Cambridge, Grace has had many encounters with education along her way. Including failed GCSEs, dropouts and disengagement. After returning into the education world as a dinner lady, Grace came face to face with the transformative powers of education, particularly in areas of high deprivation.
Undergraduate Suman Sharma is studying English. As a child growing up in North-East England, the public library was her sanctuary. Despite this love of books, Suman was encouraged to study science and her first degree was in Chemistry and Biology. She then worked for BT, marketing to global industrial accounts, until starting a family and tutoring business. When the children left home, Suman decided to fulfil her childhood ambition which had always been "bubbling in the background" and joined Wolfson College as an English undergraduate.
Details
The event is free, open to all, and there is no need to book.
The panel discussion will be followed by an International Women's Day Dinner, open to all Wolfson members, staff, and their guests. Please book your place through the Dining Portal.
Access
This event will take place in the Dining Hall on the first floor of our main building. There is step-free access with a lift and an accessible toilet.
For more details please view our AccessAble guide.
