EDI Forum: Stories of My Homeland

Event details

The School’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee are pleased to invite you to our next EDI Forum. In this SBS EDI Forum, we will focus on belonging, identity, and cultural expression through the theme ‘Stories of My Homeland’. This event creates a space to recognise and reflect on the diverse cultural, linguistic, and lived experiences within our School community. At a time when conversations around migration, identity, and inclusion remain highly relevant across higher education, it is important to create opportunities for underrepresented voices to be heard and valued. As such, this EDI Forum provides an opportunity for us all to listen, reflect, and engage with different perspectives on what “home” means, and to consider how we as a School can foster a stronger sense of belonging and inclusion.

The event provides a safe and welcoming space for discussion and reflection, featuring short creative contributions from staff and students. These may include poetry, short stories, spoken word, or other forms of expression that reflect cultural heritage and personal experiences. The session will be followed by a facilitated discussion, with time for audience questions and shared reflection. 

Our presenters are:

• Greg Avetisyan, MA Social and Public Policy, School for Business and Society, University of York, who will open the session and share reflections on the concept of the event , followed by his story of Armenia, through the lens of Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates, using film and visual storytelling to explore cultural memory, identity, and homeland.
• Viktoriia Kapikian, MA Candidate in Management in the Creative and Cultural Industries, University of York who will present on Abkhazia through a video-based contribution, inviting the audience to engage with the country’s cultural and historical identity through visual storytelling.
• Natalia Verástegui Walqui, Linguist, language activist and fermentist; MA Candidate in Social Justice and Education, Department of Education, University of York, will introduce the Peruvian Amazon through a sound-based contribution, using audio recordings to reflect on Amazonian language and cultural diversity and the wider issue of language extinction.
• Uranchimeg Battsengel, MSc student in Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Management, University of York, will share perspectives on Mongolia through visual materials, language, and cultural practice, with reflections on nature, nomadic life, poetry, music, and traditional Mongolian script.
• Moses Gum, student  who will present Scan & Stream, a gallery-style digital screening of five short films, using posters, synopses, and QR codes to invite the audience into a self-guided exploration of storytelling, identity, and creative expression.
• Weeraya Vichayaprasertkul, climate filmmaker, will present a visual contribution featuring videos and photographs of riverside life in Thailand, reflecting on community, place, and the lived textures of homeland.

Please kindly note that we will be taking some photos at the event, for marketing purposes. Please let Greg know should you not wish to be included, either via email or at the event itself. Further information about the University’s processes for capturing photography and video can be found here.

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