We are pleased to announce that a special episode of the Behind the Lines podcast has been released in collaboration with Somerville College.
In Hilary, we were delighted to welcome members of Somerville and the wider University to a live recording of Arthur Snell’s geopolitics podcast Behind the Lines. This podcast has now been released and is available to listen to on Spotify or on Apple podcasts.
This one-off episode of the podcast features members of the Somerville College sanctuary community whose lives and work have been shaped by conflict and its aftermath. The conversation focuses on themes of resistance, relief, and human rights as we hear from Ukrainian political journalist Nikita Vorobiov, Sudanese physician and global health pioneer Dr Hadeel Abdelseid and Afghanistan’s first professional rapper, the pioneering women’s rights activist Sonita Alizadeh.
Sonita Alizadeh, Dr. Hadeel Abdelseid, Arthur Snell and Nikita Vorobiov
The live podcast recording in progress
Nikita Vorobiov, Principal Catherine Royle and Arthur Snell
The live podcast recording in progress
Hosted by former British diplomat Arthur Snell, the episode offers a chance to learn about the journeys of displaced students and consider how academic communities, by empowering those students, can generate lasting benefit for their students, their communities and the world.
Highlights from the conversation include Nikita talking about the variety of views among young people in Russia, and the limited options available for people living in an authoritarian state, Hadeel describing finding strength through seeing the determination of young children supporting each other in Sudan, and Sonita encouraging us all to speak up for those who have had their voices taken from them.
This episode feels especially important given the extreme uncertainty facing the next generation of displaced scholars following the government’s emergency brake on student visas for nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan. In their profoundly moving stories of transcendent humanity and their appeals for greater understanding between peoples, our sanctuary scholars and guests on this podcast make clear how much is currently at stake.
Speaker Bios
Arthur Snell
Arthur Snell is a British author, political commentator, and former diplomat who served as the United Kingdom’s High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago from 2011 to 2014. In July 2022, Arthur published his first book How Britain Broke the World. He is a regular contributor to political podcast The Bunker and host of the popular geopolitics podcast Behind the Lines.
Dr. Hadeel Abdelseid
Hadeel Mohamed Muaid Abdelseid is a physician and educator from Sudan, currently pursuing an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine. Hadeel is passionate about health equity and strengthening health systems in crisis-affected regions. Hadeel currently serves as Director of the Sudan ECHO Center of Excellence at SuDRO Organization, leading virtual education and telehealth initiatives to support frontline health workers across conflict zones.
Nikita Vorobiov
Nikita (Mykyta) Vorobiov is an Oxford-based political writer of Ukrainian-Russian origin, reading for an MSc in Russian and East European Studies as an EAA Qatar Sanctuary Scholar. Nikita’s research focuses on political psychology, nationalism, and military propaganda, where his Russian-Ukrainian background has enabled him to contribute in-depth analysis of highly nuanced topics and to collaborate the European Journalism Observatory (EJO), Amnesty International’s Mnemonics Project and the Tamizdat Project, among others.
Sonita Alizadeh
Sonita is the first professional Afghan rapper, and uses her music and her convictions to fight for the rights of women and girls all over the world. She gained worldwide attention with her 2014 single ‘Daughters for Sale’, which she wrote to publicise the experience of forced marriage. Sonita is a graduate of Bard College, and currently a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. She co-founded Arezo and The Dreams Book, a secret school for Afghan girls deprived of education under Taliban rule.