GENDER.ED - EUSA Undergraduate Feminist Trailblazer Awards: Honourable Mention

2023 marked the second year of the GENDER.ED - EUSA Undergraduate Feminist Trailblazer Awards. The awards seek to recognise extraordinary commitments to feminist scholarship and change on campus. We saw a range of nominations from students and staff which were considered by a panel of judges from GENDER.ED and EUSA. In 2023, the judges consisted of Meryl Kenny (GENDER.ED steering committee member and convenor of GENDER.ED’s flagship course, Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World). Radhika Govinda (Director of GENDER.ED), Hemangini Gupta (Associate Director of GENDER.ED) and Sam Maccallum (former EUSA VP Education).  

Sara Khatun (2nd Year Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science) received an honourable mention for her work leading the Hopper’s Society at the School of Informatics.

Here are some of Sara’s thoughts on questions posed to her by GENDER.ED’s Communications and Events Intern, Amy Life 

1. What motivates you to further the feminist cause?

One of my core values as a citizen of Earth and a woman is a strong passion for contributing towards achieving accessible, equal, and inclusive opportunities for everyone regardless of gender, race, background, ethnicity, or any other factors. It is precious to have a diverse group of individuals with various backgrounds and perspectives gathered to help make the world a fairer and safer place for everyone through unbiased and effective discussions and decision-making. As you know, women are underrepresented and are unfortunately considered minorities in the STEM fields, including tech; therefore, as a woman myself pursuing a tech degree, I am witnessing and empathising with the challenges women could face in the male-dominant tech sector, such as imposter syndrome or discrimination. Having a supportive university community or simply a strong friend group around me who share the same vision for equality as mine motivates me to further the cause of gender equality in tech and help fight the challenges gender minorities face. This was one of the key reasons why I chose to join the society "Hoppers: Gender Diversity in Informatics", because it is a society empowering gender minorities in tech, helping them to overcome the hardships of being underrepresented in the male-dominant sector, build valuable connections with tech companies such as Google, Bloomberg, and Huawei, and like-minded peers, as well as gain essential tech and soft skills through the events in an inclusive, equal, and diverse environment to thrive in their future tech careers. Fortunately, I was elected as a society president in 2022-2023, and I, along with my passionate team, have been motivated to organise valuable opportunities and events such as flagship AdaHack22 and International Women’s Day events to cultivate a friendly and inclusive space for underrepresented folk in Informatics, help boost their confidence, and deliver them important professional and tech skills to break the gender stereotypes of being a minority in tech. Hearing positive feedback and experiences from event attendees, my team, or the university in general undoubtedly brought more and more inspiration to the work me and my team pursued towards meeting the Hoppers vision. 

2. What advice would you give to other feminists and students wanting to get involved in activism at the University?

On the university scale, I would advise students who want to contribute towards positive change in the community to consider joining university societies from a wide range of options offered by the university, such as Hoppers or Feminist societies, as it is a great opportunity to meet like-minded students working towards a shared goal. You can either become a society member or even a committee member, depending on how actively you would like to be involved. Additionally, you can choose to volunteer for the events and campaigns organized by the EUSA or its societies, as it is a great way to support your community and join the team of positive change-makers where you can feel comfortable and be your true self. Most importantly, do watch the university emails, even if this might sound very obvious, because there can always be a catchy job opportunity related to feminism or the promotion of equality, diversity, and inclusivity that is either advertised by the career service, the EUSA newsletter, or any university department that you might or might not have heard of before and is of your interest, which you would not want to miss among many other emails. Lastly, who said you could not found a new society or campaign and take your own initiative within a university? Absolutely go for it! 

3. Who else would you consider to be a ‘feminist trailblazer’?

There are many women who I would consider feminist trailblazers, particularly in tech, but speaking of two out of all of them: Ada Lovelace was a woman mathematician and computer scientist who became the first computer programmer in the world. Despite the societal gender barriers in the 19th century that prevented women from pursuing careers, especially in STEM, her strong passion for computing allowed her to make significant contributions to the history of modern computer programming. She wrote extended "Notes" on the uses and potentials of the first mechanical computer called the Analytical Engine, which was invented by Charles Babbage, and she also proposed the visionary insights like music and art that could be generated by computers. I have been honored as a society president to be leading the organization of the first in-person Ada Lovelace 2022 hackathon by Hoppers Society dedicated to celebrating the achievements of such an influential woman in tech, empowering gender minorities in STEM, and boosting their networking skills and problem-solving abilities using technology. 

My Second feminist trailblazer example would be a woman after whom the society "Hoppers:Gender Diversity in Informatics" was named: the "Mother of Computing" and naval officer, Grace Murray Hopper. She developed the first computer compiler, which translates code written in human-readable language to a language comprehensible by the machine, while she was working on one of the first large-scale computers in the 20th century during the Second World War. This crucial step towards building modern programming languages led to the more accessible and maintained development of high-level programming languages. In addition, Grace coined the term "bug", meaning the error in the computer, after the moth got stuck in the machine and caused malfunctioning. This term is very widely used by programmers today for "debugging". Overall, her contributions to technology as well as her advocacy and promotion of women in computing delivered lasting influence in the history of computer science, and no wonder why one of the world’s biggest gatherings of female technologists, the "Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing", is named after her.