Guest Speakers
Briana Pegado
Host
Briana Pegado FRSA, author of ‘Make Good Trouble: A Practical Guide to the Energetics of Disruption’ (Watkins, 2024), is an award-winning social entrepreneur and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts with nearly a decade of experience in Scotland's creative industries.
A governance and anti-racism specialist in the cultural sector, she served as a consultant and member of The Collective Scotland from 2021 to 2023, a feminist social research collective. In 2017, she was recognised as one of Scotland's 30 Under 30 Inspiring Young Women.
Briana has held key roles such as co-director of We Are Here Scotland CIC, creative director of Fringe of Colour Films in 2021, and interim CEO of YWCA Scotland - The Young Women's Movement. Additionally, she was the community engagement producer for the short film OMOS, which explored the hidden Black history of Stirling Castle.
Hannah Brown
Speaker and Tour Leader
Khadea Santi
Speaker and Workshop Leader
Khadea Santi is a ceramist, arts educator, and curator interested in African diasporic histories and storytelling through creative workshops. She recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Curatorial Practice from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design.
Khadea has led projects like the Multicultural Arts Culture Stories After-school Club, where she designed activities to help kids understand colonial legacies. The project, funded by Edinburgh Council, featured carnival-themed workshops that celebrated freedom from slavery and highlighted Caribbean and African culture, music, and dance.
Her previous work includes 'Deep Lake Murmur' (2022), a 45-minute sound piece commissioned by Radiophrenia, and a Salt Wounds (2022), a ceramic workshop and participatory ceremony firing for her ancestral roots in Senegambia.
In 2021, Khadea was a member of the Black Curators Collective and was part of the team that curated 'Meandering Networks, Mapping Nations' for Glasgow International. In May 2020, she invited Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa as a guest curator to select texts on colonial histories and Afrofuturism for Rhubaba’s reading group '...from tomorrow's yesterdays'.
Hannah Sabapathy
Speaker
Based in Dundee, Hannah Sabapathy trained as a printed textile designer at The Royal College of Art. Her work combines a variety of printing methods and materials to make unexpected collages of pattern. She was selected by UAL’s Decolonising Arts Institute as part of 20/20 project, which brings together twenty ethnically diverse artists with twenty UK cultural collections.
Her residency with The Harris Museum in Preston, looked at the relationship between British and South Asian textiles focusing on copying and imitation within a colonial context. The work for this project, fourteen vitreous enamel panels has been acquired by The Harris Museum and will go on permanent display when the museum opens in 2025. She has undertaken residencies with DCA Print Studio x Jerwood, The University of Wales Trinity St David, Hospitalfield and Cove Park.
Hannah continues to explore British copies of South Asian during the nineteenth century and make work in response to this.
Zandra Yeaman
Speaker
Zandra Yeaman has been Curator of Discomfort at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow since 2021. She has a background in anti-racist activism in Scotland, working for social justice and equality. The Hunterian’s ‘Curating Discomfort’ project was devised to challenge historical power dynamics and, through ‘uncomfortable’ processes, empower new forms of collaboration between community groups, museum professionals and academics.
International recognition for ‘Curating Discomfort’ has shaped a new project, ‘Power in This Place: Unfinished Conversations’ (2022-2025) that seeks to develop further the process of change at The Hunterian.
Zandra’s current role as Head of Strategy, Development and Implementation, she contributes to strategic planning including challenging existing models, driving action and developing a culture of innovative engagement practices to enable fundamental and permanent re-alignment around race and equality practices.
Image courtesy of Museums Association
Nosheen Khwaja
Active Listener
Cat Dunn
Research in Action Panelist
In 2020, Cat Dunn founded Cat Dunn Exhibitions with the vision of curating using indigenous methodologies and authoring research studies on how colonial hierarchies influence identity.
With seven years of experience under her belt, Cat's journey in the field has been notable. It is characterised by her unwavering commitment to social justice and the transformative power of storytelling to foster understanding, connection, and positive change.
Born and raised on the Caribbean Island of Barbados, Cat's heritage significantly influences her independent curatorial practice. Through her work, she challenges the prevailing narratives around identity and actively promotes social justice.
The need for improved representation and cultural awareness of the global majority drives Cat's curatorial practice. She focuses on generating discussions about the social identity experienced by women, particularly those from marginalised communities. Her exploration of colonialism, slavery, racism, and feminism often reveals hidden or misrepresented perspectives, challenging conventional narratives and shedding light on the complexities of historical and contemporary social issues.
Curated by Cat Dunn and programmed by Fife Contemporary, the exhibition Crafted Selves: The Unfinished Conversation showcased the work of thirteen Scotland based artists exploring dual identities in their work. It first toured in Fife in 2023 and then moved to Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries & Galloway in 2024.
Irene Mosota
Research in Action Panelist
Irene is the CEO and founder of Knowledge Bridge. An organisation that supports companies with cross-cultural leadership, diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Irene also serves as the Independent Chair for the Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Implementation Review Group, closely examining the city's past and present with support from the City of Edinburgh Council. In addition to her work at Knowledge Bridge, Irene is the Deputy Chair at Social Enterprise Scotland, contributing to the growth of social enterprises.
With an MSc in Intercultural Business Communication, she brings valuable insights to the industry. As a Chartered Fellow for the CIPD People Profession and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Irene is committed to inspiring improved ways of thinking, acting, and fostering positive changes.
Beyond her professional roles, Irene is a community leader, human rights defender, and social justice advocate. She firmly believes in the equal worth of all people, regardless of their creed, ensuring an inclusive approach in all aspects of her work and advocacy
JP Reid
Research in Action Panelist
JP Reid is Exhibitions and Interpretation Manager for Culture Perth & Kinross (CPK). From 2017, he was the exhibition lead for the redevelopment of the former City Hall into the new Perth Museum, managing the creation of new permanent galleries and the Stone of Destiny display.
Alongside his CPK colleagues, Mark Hall and Anna Zwagerman, JP was part of the Perth-side project team facilitating development of the display of Maori taonga for the new museum. This ongoing collaboration with Te Papa Tongarewa and the University of Wellington sits alongside a broader reassessment of how the museum can begin to address imperial legacies and persistent abuses of power.
