To join, support, or collaborate in this work. Be that as an educator, film maker, artist, gamer, investor, or sponsor, please feel to reach out to Amjid and our team through the contact page.
Amjid Khazir
Amjid Khazir, the director of Media Cultured, is a highly experienced professional with over two decades of expertise in anti-racism work and community cohesion agendas. He is widely recognised for his groundbreaking efforts in combating racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and extremism through education, sport, and cultural-exchange training programs. Amjid is not only an award-winning educator and public speaker but has also produced internationally acclaimed short films. His dedication to this cause stems from a personal tragedy, when his uncle Mohammed Zabir became the victim of an alleged Islamophobic assault in 2011.
Amjid has utilised his communication skills and community cohesion expertise to educate and foster unity, earning him accolades and recognition from leading universities and political institutions.
Dr. David Tucker
Director of Academic Consulting Services Ltd.
He puts academic expertise in touch with the private and public sectors, particularly with regards to right-wing extremism. David has taught at the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex, Oxford Brookes University and Goldsmiths, University of London. His most recent publication is a book on hate crime and forgiveness.
Prof. Matthew Feldman
Professor Matthew Feldman is a specialist on fascist ideology and radical-right extremism, and directs of the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right.
A longstanding feature of his work is a record of public engagement and policy-based impact, including briefings for various governmental bodies, reports for leading NGOs, expert testimony in more than a dozen radical right trials, and several hundred media interviews. An Emeritus Professor in the Modern History of ideas, he is the author or editor of more than 20 books, including three book length studies and more than 40 peer-reviewed articles or academic book chapters. His second collection of essays, Politics, Intellectuals and Faith, appeared in spring 2020.
Karenza Passmore
Director of the North East Religious Learning Resources Centre
I am one of a team of people committed to supporting excellent education about faith in its many diverse regional, national and global forms. It is my firm professional, and personal, conviction that in order to do this work prejudice, extremism and racism towards, and within, faiths (and in our wider societies) must be acknowledged and addressed.
I have worked collaboratively with Media Cultured for many years now. I have confidence that its ethos, mission and the practical work it does in the UK, and overseas, addresses, and helps to mitigate, the myriad ways these social disorders manifest themselves.
I am happy to serve as a Trustee – to offer some positive, strategic and reflective guidance on how the organisation might develop – over the next two years. It is my sincere hope that eventually there will be no necessity for organisations like this to exist but, while there is, I will do my best to serve it with integrity and be a positive force for change.
Samina Mughal
Being part of Media Cultured is something which I see as a chance for me to bring my career and personal interests together
Starting out in my career as a teacher of FE, Equality and Diversity has always played an integral role in my ethos and values. Being a Justice of the Peace, allowed me to develop this further as it enabled me to ensure that everyone who came into the justice system in Teesside is treated fairly. Working with Media Cultured has given me the opportunity to engage in workshops which tackle the challenges around Equality and Diversity head on and allow me to continue to deliver these values deeper into the core parts of the community where change can occur to ensure a fairer system to all in every aspect of life.
My roles as a trustee and a trainer have equipped me with the insight and skills needed to help to ensure equality and diversity is always placed at the heart of education where it should always be.
Nosheen Khan
I volunteer with Media cultured when the opportunity arises. Racism and discrimination are impacting our communities and society on a daily basis and manifesting in different forms. More needs to be done to encourage people to think critically about the issues of race and more support should be given to those who want to tackle racism at its roots.
I found out about Media cultured and Amjid’s brilliant work through a friend. It is a distinctive organisation that is promoting unity and countering extremism through education, inclusion, safeguarding and equality programmes across the UK.
I have been part of many workshops as a volunteer and find them to be very interactive, informative and fun to be part of. Most of all the workshops helps to see things more accurately and with more openness to positive change.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
1994, from Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”
Sara Bloomfield
My dissertation was focused on the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the resulting Macpherson Inquiry to see what progress has been made to remove the institutionalised racism within the Metropolitan Police Force and other Police Force’s up and down the country. 2020 has been a poignant reminder that there is still a way to go in relations between the police and minority communities, though I also think it is fair to say that there has been improvements over the last 27 years; just maybe not to the extent to allow for true equality.
In 2017, I joined Humankind Charity (then DISC) on the Lottery Funded Challenging Youth Racism Project, in partnership with Teesside University. This was a fantastic opportunity to educate young people and raise awareness of racism; providing a safe space for them to talk about language, common misconceptions, and media influence. As a project we visited schools, colleges, and community groups around the North East to deliver bespoke presentations around topics of racism that they believed were a need for exploration. It was on this journey that I met Amjid Khazir and learned about Media Cultured. We attended Media Cultured Workshops to expand our knowledge around the complexities of extremism.
Being a part of Media Cultured’s Board is both an honour and a privilege, to stand side by side, promote unity and support Amjid and the team to grow and expand. Raising the profile of Media Cultured and seeing the workshops and films reach far and wide, both nationally and internationally will be a fantastic way to promote social cohesion.
Dr. Erika Anderson
Doctoral Researcher in Economic & Social History at the University of Glasgow
As a doctoral researcher focusing on corporate social responsibility in the tech sector, I’m passionate about fostering environments and opportunities that develop diversity in tech. Having grown up overseas, I feel particularly drawn to matters of racial, religious, or gender bias, especially as they manifest in technologies that have the potential to level the global playing field.
I’ve worked with a range of organizations, from a local arts centre working toward community education to an island-wide human trafficking task force that united various governmental, academic, and private interests to combat a horrific practice. In working with Media Cultured, I hope to utilize my academic, professional, and voluntary experience to support a philosophy that resonates and inspires.
