EDI Mini-Fest - Awarding Gaps
EDI Mini-Fest - Awarding Gaps
Embedded Files
Keynote: DEI or EDI that is not the question
Keynote: DEI or EDI that is not the question
Photo credit: Dr Ope Lori by Ajamu X
Dr Ope Lori (PhD, FHEA, MA, PgDip, BA)
Founder and CEO of Pre-Image Learning and Action Read
Dr Ope Lori (PhD, FHEA, MA, PgDip, BA)
Founder and CEO of Pre-Image Learning and Action Read
Bio:
Dr. Ope Lori is the Founder and CEO of Pre-Image Learning and Action (PILAA), an Arts & Diversity company she founded in 2017. Some of their clients include, ACME, Tate, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the Courtauld, the Open College of Arts, Corps Security and GamCare. She is also a practising visual artist; specializing using video and photography in her political practice. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at La Fondation Blachére, France; 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning and at Autograph in London.
She was a Lecturer at both Chelsea School of Arts and Leeds Arts University between 2009-2019, and continued to guest lecture at the Royal College of Arts, amongst other leading institutions of Art. She completed her PhD in Fine Art in 2013 and held one of the first Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships at TrAIN (Transnational, Art, Identity and Nation) Research Centre UAL between 2016-2018, before fully utilising her knowledge and training in the diversity and Inclusion industry.
She is the author of “Should I, shouldn’t I?’: A self-reflexive study in unpacking ideologies of race while devising a critical studies fine art programme”, in Hatton, K. (ed.) Inclusion and Intersectionality in Visual Arts Education, (UCL Institute of Education Press, 2019). She is also the author of her first solo forthcoming book, Beyond The Feminine: The Politics of Skin Colour and Gender in Visual Culture (Bloomsbury, 2025) due to be released in July 2025.
Dr. Lori featured in the first ever UK Black Pride (UKBP) The Black Lesbian Power List 2024, brought together by UK Black Pride CEO Phyll Opoku-Gyimah and supported by DIVA.
Session Outline:
In this keynote speech, Dr. Ope Lori, Founder and CEO of Pre-Image Learning and Action Read, takes us on a thought-provoking exploration on the misconceptions of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), as it is often referred to in the US. In a challenging political climate, we unpack some of the arguments, in our attempt to give clarity, and above all hope, in an ever-pressing inter-national situation. Whether DEI or EDI as it is often referred to in the UK, Dr. Lori argues that this is not the main issue at stake, as she takes a closer look at whiteness and ideologies of race, meritocracy, closing the Awarding (Attainment) Gap and what it means to diversify, whether at recruitment level, board level, or as part of curriculum design.
As an artist, academic, diversity specialist and critical thinker, Dr. Lori will unpack terms such as ‘lived experience’, and share her insights, putting fourth solutions and interventions in closing the illusive awarding gap. This keynote is her call to action, where she’ll advocate for doing the essential work of equality, diversity and inclusion, and not lose sight of its essence. “Whether DEI or EDI, that is not the question.”
The Competitive Series (2024) Photo image courtesy ©PILAA
Ope Lori - DEI or EDI.pdfPage updated
Report abuse