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What sort of teaching have you done for our programme Languages, Power and Cultures? And, what involvement do you have with the Languages and Cultures essay competition?
I do Latin American topics, I come from the Caribbean so I decided to speak a little bit about the post-colonial imagination through the works of Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam, who is one of my favourite artists. We actually have in the Wren Library many of his artist books. I also spoke about the works of the Martinique intellectual psychiatrist and philosopher Franz Fanon.
The Languages and Cultures Programme and Essay Prize has been going for the last 2 years. I read the essays and I am highly impressed with the levels the students achieve in terms of writing and in terms of ideas. Our outreach programmes really help foster a diverse community within Trinity and it is very beautiful to see this coming into fruition.
The topics you mention are not A-Level topics, so how important is it for school students to engage with topics outside of a school classroom?
We are trying to attract students to Cambridge who are genuinely passionate about languages and cultures in their entirety.
I always try to stress with my students that it is very important to concentrate on getting the exams right, but curiosity will lead you everywhere. Falling in love with the topic and exploring different subjects which might seem initially far away from what the exams are about, end up tying together a much broader coherent intellectual picture about what the world is really like. Only the students who really fall in love with the topic will be able to succeed in the true sense of the word once exams come. I encourage this of my students at the undergrad level and the PhD level and I would also encourage A-level students to venture outside the box.
Are there set texts or recommended readings that school students should be engaging with?
I have sometimes found it much more interesting when a student is able to bring in things that are perhaps outside of the classical ways we think about knowledge and culture.
For example, some students recently bought reggaeton and popular Caribbean music into their personal statements and as long as they link it in interesting ways to their passion for the subjects and the academic debates, then actually that’s very fascinating and I really advocate for that sort of daring approach to the subject.
What would you say about the benefits of attending a taster day or residential event at Trinity?
it’s nice to see the place and to come here to be encouraged by the amazingness of the place and its academic history and at the same to meet students who can bring all of that down to earth. Visiting can help students realise it is not that intimidating and if people like me got in, I might have a chance, and more importantly want to be a part of that community.
After the residential, this would be a good time to venture outside of the A-Levels because then you might think ‘I heard about this guy Nécessaire, I might look for a book of poems by Nécessaire and read them’. It would be that sort of venturing outside of the academic box that would allow you to pick and choose topics to follow up on.
We have essay competitions open for Languages, Politics, Literature, Linguistics and other subjects. Why is it useful for students to enter into an essay competition?
I would really encourage students to participate. We have a really exciting list of four questions, all very playful, that give you room and space for creativity. Be creative in your essays, don’t feel that you have to write what you’re supposed to write, but write what you love and what you believe in.
It is a competition, so it is about the prize but it is also about the process. Putting yourself through that process of writing a 3,000-word essay is a way to get a proper taster of what Cambridge is about, and I hope students in the process of writing discover that they are more passionate about the topic than they might have originally imagined.