MA - Art and Politics

The best things about my time studying at Goldsmiths were the intellectual stimulation of the MA Art & Politics course and the inspiring and interesting people I learnt from and studied with. It provided valuable skills in critical thinking, self-reflection and coping with creative and mental challenges. It gave me the confidence and support to continue my academic career and develop a more critical approach to my art practice.

Since graduating from Goldsmiths I have won awards, fellowships and funding from the British Council, Arts Council and Open Society Foundations. I have presented my work at the Black Europe Summer School in Amsterdam and at Birkbeck, University of London, as well in numerous exhibitions in the UK and Europe. As an artist and educator I have worked in school and community settings, focusing on workshops for young people with special educational needs.

I found out about Goldsmiths while I was researching MA degrees in London after I had finished my undergraduate degree. Before I came to Goldsmiths, I worked in various organisations in India as a Fulbright Scholar from 2014 to 2015, and then lived in Washington DC and worked in consulting.

I loved the academic freedom that Goldsmiths offers, and the chance to explore topics that are related to my interests, and even topics that aren't. I absolutely loved London – it has an incredible energy and a DIY spirit, and living in London was incredibly inspirational for my writing and personal development.

While at Goldsmiths, I worked at the Imperial War Museum and at the cultural agency Culture+Conflict, both of which were incredibly formative experiences. I have also been writing freelance criticism for Artforum, ArtAsiaPacific, frieze, and other publications.

After completing my coursework, I moved back to New York to intern at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and I am currently the Spiegel-Wilks Curatorial Fellow at the ICA Philadelphia.

After working for more than a decade in different public art institutions, in recent years I have been focusing my research on alternative forms of institutionalism that challenge the neo-liberal trends of our times, characterised by commercialisation, in which art and culture have become exchange values.

I was looking for a discussion group to share my interests in politics, cultural policy, art and activism with, and I realised that the MA in Art & Politics at Goldsmiths addressed most of the most urgent issues I was researching.

It’s the perfect atmosphere for me to rethink my own curatorial practice and to discuss some of the current key critical theoretical discourses affecting the intersection between politics and art and its democratization.

As an International Affairs Analyst for CNN in Brazil, I need to analyse current world politics in real-time. The MA International Relations at Goldsmiths, University of London prepared me well for this. It gave me the analytical tools that are key to my job and made me stand out in the competitive job market in the first place. During my studies, I learned to analyse contemporary international relations from a variety of critical perspectives. In the seminars, my lecturers often pushed me to think creatively outside the box. Beyond theories and academic analyses, the course also offered me the possibility to sharpen my job profile and gain real-world experience during a work placement module. As part of my studies, I thus worked for a human rights organisation on the situation of conflict and peace in Colombia. In doing so, I gained relevant experience in advocacy on human rights, international development and peacebuilding, including informing British MPs about the situation in Colombia. I thus feel that the MA International Relations at Goldsmiths offered the perfect combination of theory and practice.

I am the winner of the Chevening Scholarship Program awarded by the British Government to study in the United Kingdom. I was selected through a competitive process involving over 60,000 candidates from all over the world. Moreover, I am also the winner of the Gobernador Enrique Tomas Cresto award granted by the Argentine Senate recognising me as a leader of Latin America and highlighting my contribution to the continent's development. I was the youngest person in history to receive this award. In 2020, I was nominated to 2020 Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD). In support of the International Decade for People of African Descent, proclaimed by United Nation's General Assembly resolution 68/237 and to be observed from 2015 to 2024, the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) identifies high achievers of African descent in public and private sectors from all around the world as a progressive network of relevant actors to join together in the spirit of recognition, justice and development of Africa, it's people on the continent and across it's Diaspora.

My work placement experience at Mercy Corps was a fantastic opportunity that allowed me to bridge the coursework with applicable, transferable skills I was able to foster throughout my time there. I enjoyed getting to be a part of a multi-disciplinary team working on a project start to finish that was tackling pressing issues in our world today, understanding Climate Change and Conflict nexus in fragile regions. I also was able to see what all goes into putting on a forum with different actors in this space, to have a more in-depth discussion about the multi-layered solutions for a global problem. Getting to have work experience at Mercy Corps gave me a taste of what future humanitarian work will look like after finishing the course. The people I have met at Mercy Corps has allowed me to build connections with individuals across different sectors that will help me on my path to building a meaningful career.