Alumni spotlight: Fui Amevor
Meet Fui Amevor, an alumnus of the Health in Urban Development MSc with a passion for advocating for critical urban health and racial justice.
About Fui
Fui Amevor joined the Health in Urban Development MSc to learn about techniques and strategies he could use to effectively implement equitable change in housing, planning, health, law, and other areas. Now, he is working on his critical urban health and racial justice consultancy, with an aim to contribute to the knowledge base about how intersecting forms of discrimination continue to harm the health of Black people in London.
Q&A with Fui
Why did you choose to study on the Health in Urban Development MSc?
What specifically brought me to The Bartlett Development Planning Unit was my interest in advocating against the gentrification of housing and informing people of their rights as tenants. I wanted to know how to evidence the spiritual, physical, psychological and physiological harms and injuries caused by social landlords to their tenants. Planning and design became an academic interest through my advocacy pushing back against gentrification in my local area.
I took part in the DPU summerLab in 2018 which was an interesting and challenging experience - I learned a lot from the facilitators and the other students during that week. Following the summerLab I read Professor Haim Yacobi's book The Jewish-Arab City Spatio-politics in a mixed community, and my brain made lots of links to white supremacist ideology in colonial and modern day planning. I knew I wanted to I join the Health in Urban Development MSc to learn about techniques and strategies I can use to implement effective equitable change in housing, planning, health, law, and other areas. Soon after, I contacted Professor Haim Yacobi and arranged to speak with him to express my interest in the course.
What were your academic and professional interests and experiences before joining the Health in Urban Development MSc?
I have quite a few academic and professional interests, including law, human rights, health and racial justice, and social justice - which all came from seeing and experiencing anti-Blackness, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, discrimination and injustice as a child, teen and adult. I'm particularly interested in how these structures are part of daily life for so many racialised groups.
I also have an interest in mental health and psychotherapy from my own experiences of talking therapies and learning more about myself. During the first year of the pandemic, I managed to do a couple of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) courses with Haringey Learns about counselling skills, which were really insightful. That led to me doing some citizen journalism course which also aligned with my creative writing interests. Additionally, I did an excellent creative writing course with Caitríona Fitzsimons through Haringey Learns. In my professional life, I've had experience in Derivatives and Structured Products when I was a paralegal and contractor.
Did you join the Health in Urban Development MSc with any scholarship or funding?
I follow a few of the academics from The Bartlett Development Planning Unit on Twitter where The Bartlett Promise Scholarship was brought to my attention. The Bartlett Promise is a long-term project to attract students from a broader range of backgrounds to tackle the lack of diversity in the built environment. I applied for the scholarship and was successful in being awarded the The Bartlett Promise UK Master's Scholarship. I'm very grateful to The Bartlett Promise team who were involved in setting up the scholarship as it was crucial to funding my studies.
What did you enjoy most about your studies, and why?
First and foremost, I enjoyed meeting and studying with faculty, staff, and graduate teaching assistants of The Bartlett Development Planning Unit. My peers were so open to learn about the different ways anti-Blackness, health, planning, law, intersectionality, ableism, whiteness, colonialism, and white supremacist ideology are embedded in society, design, planning and urban development. I felt this was particularly important for everyone to understand the background and context of urban development and planning and how it is all connected to what is going on in the world right now.
Additionally, I enjoyed:
- The opportunity to audit modules alongside my core studies. This meant that I could sit in lectures and access learning materials for modules that I was interested in without being assessed on them. I especially enjoyed learning about the work of Amartya Sen and John Rawls for the first time, and auditing definitely helped me to think critically, beyond my specific interests in health in urban development.
- Working with my learning support team, including my Study Skills Tutor Sophie and my Mentor Dr Sally. It was great to know information and support for students with disabilities is available from UCL.
- Engaging with facilities and communities across the university, particularly the Institute of Making (a multidisciplinary home that explores making through materials and processes in their events and research).
- Learning from the UCU Black Members' Standing Committee whose efforts take a stand against structural racism in the higher education sector.
Which communities and events did you participate in?
The Bartlett Forum for the Global Majority is a space for all staff and students at the Bartlett who identify as non-white and I found their events really interesting. I particularly liked their event with Guilaine Kinouani (a genius) and David Neita (an inspiring Barrister and Poet). I also enjoyed the Forum's funding skills workshops with Associate Professor Sertaç Sehlikoglu.
What are you working on now?
I'm working on starting a critical urban health and racial justice company, Amevor Consulting. I am incorporating the learnings from my studies on the Health in Urban Development MSc with knowledge from my personal life experiences and the Liberating Knowledge's Health and Racial Justice Lab. I continue to be inspired by the work of academics I came across during my studies, including Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, Professor Patricia Hill Collins, Guilaine Kinouani, Professor Chandra Ford, and Professor Camara Jones. I aim to continue contributing to the knowledge base about how intersectional structures of anti-Blackness and intersecting forms of discrimination continue to harm the health of people racialised as Black (Black people) in London, and I'd like to also ask the Urban Health Team at the World Health Organisation (WHO) to liaise with their Ministry of Health counterparts to take action to eliminate intersectional structures of anti-Blackness and advocate for the payment of reparations.
What advice would you give to a student considering studying on the Health in Urban Development MSc?
- Apply for scholarships! If you're unsuccessful, try not to be discouraged; keep applying.
- Tap into the student support facilities across the university, including the Student Support and Well-being team, and registering for a Summary of Reasonable Adjustments (SoRA) as early as possible if you are eligible.
- For students with disabilities, go through the process of applying for a Disabled Students Allowance thoroughly and register with the Digital Accessibility Hub.
- Communicate with your Personal Tutor
- Finally, prioritise your health. Rest, dance, pray, and when you're ready, continue.
Discover more about Fui and what he's currently working on via LinkedIn.
Are you interested in studying the Health in Urban Development MSc at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit?
Discover more about the course and the career opportunities it could unlock by visiting the UCL Graduate prospectus.