On Saturday 4th November women, men and non-binary were invited to come together and celebrate 37 years of women being educated at Queens'. Queens' student and JCR Womens' Officer Leah Jones (2015) organised the entire evening to resounding success; particular highlights included listening to music from the extremely talented Queens' student Matilda Wickham (2014), and hearing speeches from Queens' alumnae Njoki Wamai (2012), Alice Baxter (2003), and Sallyanne Sweeney (2006). Furthermore, Selwyn College graduate Lola Olufemi (CUSU Womens' Officer) gave a speech about her work, and her involvement in the movement towards declonising the English degree at Cambridge. At the end of the night every attendee took home a bespoke original artwork from Queens' alumna Emma Wood (2014).
Njoki Wamai is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Governance and Human Rights at the University of Cambridge Politics and International Studies Department. She was previously a Gates Cambridge Scholar and she is an alumnus of the Africa Leadership Centre at King's College London. Njoki is a co-founder and founding president of Black Cantabs Research Society. The project aims to the uncover the lost histories of black students in Cambridge and hopes Cambridge Colleges will start appreciating the importance of diversity and representation in imagery by having portraits of prominent black alumni in their colleges, improving access programmes for black students to join their colleges and in the hiring of more black academics.
Alice Baxter currently presents a mixture of news and business programmes across BBC World, the BBC News Channel, BBC One and BBC Two. She can regularly be seen presenting World Business Report, grilling CEOs, CFOs and politicians from all around the world. Interview highlights have included WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell, Lloyds of London’s Richard Ward and South Africa's Minister of Trade & Industry Rob Davies, live from the BRICs summit. In the news chair, and reporting from the BBC's World Newsroom, Alice has covered a number of breaking news stories in 2013, including the escalation of tensions in Syria, Egypt and Turkey.
Sallyanne Sweeney grew up in Dublin and studied English at Trinity College before completing an Mphil in American Literature at Queens’ College. After graduating she joined Watson, Little Ltd, becoming a Literary Agent in 2008 and a Director of the company in 2011. She joined Mulchaly Associates in 2013 and is building her list of authors and illustrators for children and adults. Passionate about working with debut authors, her fiction tastes are wide-ranging, from the literary to the very commercial, but she is always excited by a distinctive voice, strong storytelling and a fresh premise. She is also interested in memoirs, food writing and thought-provoking non fiction. Sallyanne regularly attends writing festivals and events and is the Chair of the Children’s Agents’ Circle.
Thank to you everyone who attended the dinner to take a moment to celebrate the achievements of women at Queens', and especially a big thank you to the alumnae speakers who came back to Queens' specially for the evening. We look forward to the next dinner, and to 2020 when we celebrate the 40 year anniversary of women being admitted to the college!