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About Us

What modern education means to us.

1. Our programme content is interdisciplinary and diverse.
2. Our programmes centre student work.

Here at Thinking Black, we believe that young people are a powerful force for good. We aim to engage, equip and empower a new generation of young Black voices.

What is Thinking Black?

To create modern educational programmes that enable student responses to diverse curricula.

Our Mission

Be it formal or creative writing, visual art or public speaking, we want to amplify it.

The skills component of our programmes gives students the power of language (visual or verbal) to express their ideas.

Founder, Director.

Hope Oloye

Hope founded the African Caribbean Tyler (ACT) Prize, the predecessor to Thinking Black, while completing her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at Pembroke College, Oxford.

During a year at New York University, Hope developed a vision of multiple radical programmes, engaging students at all stages of secondary school. In 2020, she launched Thinking Black to preside over this suite of programmes, leading the organisation and all its activity.

Alongside running Thinking Black, Hope is pursuing a PhD at University College London; her research is within the cross-disciplinary study of brain and behaviour in the real world, and is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Tumi is an undergraduate student at St Hilda's College, Oxford studying psychology and linguistics.

Whilst applying for Oxford, Tumi was a participant in the ACTyler Prize and is now involved in several initiatives surrounding access, including work with the mental health charity, ‘States of Mind’ looking at educational inequality as well as access work within the Oxford ACS.

 

She will be working with the content development team to help produce resources for future programmes and hire lecturers and workshop leaders to deliver interdisciplinary programmes.

People Manager | Content Consultant

Tumi

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Meron studied Experimental Psychology at Jesus College, Oxford. During her time at Oxford, she worked on access initiatives at her College and for the Oxford ACS. She is also a mentor at Target Oxbridge.

 

Meron enjoys working with students and is passionate about providing access to resources across the community. Alongside working as a Secretary at Thinking Black, Meron is studying for a postgraduate diploma in Law at BPP University.

Secretary

Meron

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Emediong was a mentor and discussion group leader for the 2020-21 ACT Essay Prize whilst completing her undergraduate degree in Global Health at Queen Mary, University of London.

 

She is the student lead/founder of the Global Health Anti-racism subcommittee at her university, heading up work in curriculum development, pedagogy practices and decolonising the curriculum initiatives and on issues of inclusion and diversity in higher education.

 

She will be working as the Junior Digital Content Officer to help drive awareness of our work on our digital channels and increase engagement across potential individual donors and students on our programme.

Digital Liason Officer

Emediong

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Leah studied Music at St Hugh’s College, Oxford where she participated in a panel tackling ways to restructure the curriculum to better reflect the student body.

She is now working as the Front-End Developer, designing and building the company website.

Communications Officer

Leah

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Core Team

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Meet the team.

Black Womanhood

Yaa

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Yaa Addae was an external marker of the 2021 ACT Essay Prize and is now a module leader for the Black Womanhood Module.

 

With a background in art history, she is a culture journalist and curator having worked with Ano Institute, Gallery 1957, Southbank Centre, Nubuke Foundation, Goethe Instiut Lisbon, and The Barbican, and led workshops with Autograph ABP, The Church of Black Feminist Thought, The Library of Africa + The African Diaspora and Rumpus Room.

 

Her writing has been published in AMAKA, Bitch Media, Gal-Dem, Trippin, The Republic, and Everything Passes Except The Past (Sternberg Press March 2021) and her curatorial work was featured in Time Magazine. Currently Yaa is a design researcher at COMUZI Lab.

AI & Bias Module Leader & Content Developer

Joshua

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Joshua is an undergraduate studying Computer Science at Christ Church College, Oxford. He is an outreach ambassador for his college and for the Computer Science department, as well as being involved with student societies such as the ACS and the Oxford branch of the Google Developer Student Club.

Alongside his studies, Joshua enjoys participating in technical projects, such as a robotics project with the Engineers Without Borders student society. He is also pursuing a career in tech and has completed Software Engineering internships at various companies, including Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Google.

Climate Justice is Racial Justice

Tofunmi

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Tofunmi was a lecturer, mentor, and discussion group leader for the 2020-21 ACT Essay Prize. She will continue in these roles and will deliver a lecture on climate change as racial justice as part of the 2021-22 ACT Essay Prize competition.

Tofunmi is currently completing her Barrister Vocational Studies and LLM at City, University of London. Previously she studied Political Science and African Studies at McGill University and completed her MSc in African Studies with Heritage at UCL before pursuing her law degree, which she completed in 2020.

Tofunmi believes in the need to actively decolonise the curriculum and sees education and knowledge as a tool to empower children and young people. 

Healthcare Inequality

Abena

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Abena is a medical undergraduate at St Anne’s College of the University of Oxford.

 

Abena has been involved in internships at NHS England and founder of the Black Medics of Oxford University group. She also spends her time advising students in their medical school applications.

 

She is an ACT module leader for Healthcare Inequality.

ACT: Our Time is Now and Creative Writing: Plays

Grace

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Grace is an undergraduate finalist at St Catherine’s college, Oxford studying History and English. Grace is particularly passionate about educational access, having worked on the Oxford UNIQ summer school and for the company Study Higher, who help young carers among other widening participation groups.

Her position as a module leader for the plays stream suitably allows her to combine this passion for access with her passion for theatre.

 

Grace is an active member of the Oxford Dramatic Society, served on their executive committee, was the winner of their New Writing Festival in 2021 and has had two of her original plays produced for the Oxford stage. She is hoping to carry on her educational access work as a sabbatical officer for the Oxford Student Union next year, along with carrying on with her theatrical pursuits.

Innervisions of Freedom

Ebun

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Ebun was a mentor and discussion group leader for the 2020-21 ACT Essay Prize whilst completing her undergraduate degree in African Studies and Swahili at SOAS, University of London.

Her degree concentrations were Art History and Ethnomusicology, through an Afro-Brazilian Womanist lens. Now, she is the Inner Visions of Freedom Module Leader. Alongside this, she currently works as an Advocate for a charity that seeks to empower young women who have experienced sexual and criminal exploitation.

Roaming Module Leader

Gbenga

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Gbenga has participated in Thinking Black several times over the years, and provided support as a mentor while studying Economics and Management at St. Hugh’s College Oxford.

He has experience working across multiple industries, and is currently a Fullstack Software Engineer as well as a tutor.

Roaming Module Leader

Dorothea

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Dorothea is a second year law student at St John’s College, Oxford. Dorothea believes in the importance of educational access, having acted as a Target Oxbridge Law mentor to support black African and Caribbean students on their Oxbridge application journey.

Dorothea is also passionate about using her own legal knowledge to equip students with the confidence to initiate legal discussion; she has delivered sessions to help prospective law students navigate complex areas of the law as part of an Oxford pro-bono initiative. As a Module Leader she similarly hopes to encourage students to delve into difficult questions that influence and inspire them.

Creative Writing: Prose

Maria

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Maria Motunrayo Adebisi is the Prose Creative Module leader at Thinking Black. She is a children’s author who secured a two book deal with multiple leading publishers for her middle-grade adventure fantasy series, Jujuland which will debut in 2023.

She currently works as a Senior Operations Executive for Beam, a crowdfunding website that helps people experiencing homelessness into secure jobs and housing. She’s been working for Tech startups for a few years, but graduated from the University of Oxford, Somerville College with a degree in English Literature.

Content Consultant

Chimdi

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Chimdi is an undergraduate student studying Theology and religion at Pembroke College, Oxford. She was part of the first cohort of the African Caribbean Tyler (ACT) Prize back in 2018.

 

She was the Vice-President of the Oxford African and Caribbean society (ACS) in 2021/22 and actively supports access initiatives at Oxford from Target Oxbridge to UNIQ. She is also part of Diversity & Inclusion work at a university level, sitting on the Race Equality Task Force as well as Black Pembroke, at college level.

Module Leaders

Access Fellow, Pembroke College, Oxford

Peter Claus

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Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Michael Ohajuru

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Our Patrons

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Founding Member

Victor

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Victor was a founding member of the ACT Essay Prize, providing expertise and support whilst completing his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at Merton College, Oxford.

 

Alongside co-directing the Thinking Black organisation and all its programmes, he is pursuing a PhD in Animal Cognition at the University of Oxford, funded by the BBSRC.

Our Time is Now

Josh

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Former Team

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