Making Home: Reflections from Academic Research and Book Launches

Kayd is pleased to invite you to an academic event featuring a distinguished panel of authors who will share insights into their work and research. The discussion will explore a range of themes, including home, identity, diaspora, race, language, and culture. The event will highlight the work of Dr. Nuur Hassan, Faiza Abdulkadir, Ahmed Abdi, and Warda Farah, offering an engaging opportunity to reflect on contemporary scholarship, literature, and lived experiences.Following the event, attendees will have the opportunity to purchase books and have them signed by the authors.

Dr. Nuur Hassan is an academic, writer, and cultural researcher whose work engages Somali history, language, and intellectual traditions. His forthcoming publication explores Somali knowledge systems, memory, and cultural continuity (details to be confirmed). Dr. Hassan will present his recent publications titled My Name is Sahal: A Journey of Exile, Love and Legacy.

Faiza Abdulkadir (She/Her) is a British Somali Muslim based in London working across arts fundraising, consultancy, archiving and artist management. She has over ten years’ experience in the social sector and has led fundraising for award-winning London theatres including Bush Theatre, The Yard Theatre, Gate Theatre and HighRise Theatre. Faiza is also a Sociology doctoral researcher at Birkbeck, University of London, exploring intergenerational tensions within British Somali communities through concepts such as Dhaqan Celis. Her archival practice documents British Somali stories through Black and Islamic feminist frameworks.

Ahmed Abdi is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur focused on identity and belonging. His book Between Nations, Within Myself reflects on growing up between cultures in Sweden and the challenges of being a visible minority. After moving to Africa for business, he gained a deeper understanding of home and self. Today, he inspires others to move beyond labels and define themselves on their own terms.

Warda Farah is a speech and language therapist, writer, and social entrepreneur whose work sits at the intersection of language, race, and disability. Drawing on her own experiences as a neurodivergent Black woman, her practice centres questions of access, identity, and the ways in which communication is shaped by power and perception. She is the founder of Language Waves, a social enterprise created in response to the barriers Black and minority families face when accessing culturally and linguistically affirming speech and language support. Through her work, Warda challenges traditional approaches within the field, creating space for more inclusive, reflective, and community-rooted ways of thinking about language and care. Working across practice, research, and writing, she continues to open up conversations around neurodiversity, identity, and communication, not as fixed categories, but as lived and evolving experiences. Farah will present her recent book titled White System, Black Therapist: Racism, Resistance and Reimagining Speech and Language Therapy.

The event will be hosted by Prof. Katherine Baxter, Professor of English Literature at Northumbria University. Her research engages with colonial and postcolonial histories and literatures of the Somali region.