Our former interns

Pierre is a third-year Sociology student and an intern of the Pedagogies for Social Justice project, in which he also co-leads the Decolonisation and Anti-racism (DAR) study group. Since joining Westminster, Pierre has been heavily interested in questioning and repositioning some of the societal norms that negatively impact minority groups and communities. More specifically, Pierre has focused a lot of his attention on how social media and algorithms portray and represent groups in different ways.

Melissa Charifo is a third-year Law student at the University of Westminster. She is also a research intern on the Pedagogies for Social Justice project as well as an ambassador of the Students as Co-Creators programme. Both roles have enabled Melissa to contribute to the university community and equip her with invaluable knowledge about the Sustainable Development Goals.

Huanyu is doing her PhD at the University of Westminster, to explore the relationship between social media and feminism campaigns, and the feminist narratives in the non-western social context. As a feminist and an East Asian woman, Huanyu believes that the perspective of feminism and the voice of East Asians are of great significance in discussions of higher education issues. She hopes to use them as approaches to contribute to the Pedagogy for Social Justice project.

Zamara is a final year Business Management student with a passion for social justice, particularly feminist issues. She is currently working as a research intern on the PSJ project to learn more about decolonisation within higher education. Her research focuses specifically on decoloniality within the disciplines of Accounting, Finance, and Economics.

Her Lebanese/Irish background and her interest in their histories have largely contributed to her fight for a voice as she empathises with the strength of their civilians to stand strong during difficult times. Lauren aims to combine her degree with humanitarian work in the future in the hope to improve third-world countries in the economic, political and social sense. As well as this, she is a strong advocate for women empowerment in which she strives to work with women who are underrepresented, specifically in the Middle East, where they continue to be treated as inferior to their male counterparts.

Ozge is a PhD student investigating the relationship between high-tech agriculture and Mediterranean cities, with a special emphasis on climate change, labour, and migration. Influenced by her background with the Yuruks, a Turkish semi-nomadic group, Ozge's heritage enables her to critically examine contemporary farming practices within the broader context of the global food supply chain. Before her doctoral studies, she served as an adjunct lecturer and practising architect in Turkey, where she was committed to designing public spaces and buildings in culturally and environmentally sensitive contexts. Her architectural projects, underpinned by the conviction that power dynamics are deeply embedded in spatial design—from national museums to places of worship and educational institutions—have shaped her pursuit of socio-environmentally equitable "making" practices. Ozge values the transformative potential of narratives to alter perceptions of space and power and pursues representation and storytelling as essential tools for public engagement.