Emma Dabiri and Shon Faye

Shon Faye was born in Bristol, and is now based in London. After training as a lawyer, she left the law to pursue writing and campaigning, working in the charity sector with Amnesty International and Stonewall. She was an editor-at-large at Dazed, and her writing has been published by the Guardian, the Independent and Vice, among others. Faye recently launched an acclaimed podcast series, Call Me Mother, interviewing trailblazing LGBTQ elders. Her debut book, The Transgender Issue, is an urgent manifesto for change, calling for justice and solidarity between all marginalized people and minorities, and resulting in a more just, free and joyful world for us all.

Emma Dabiri is an Irish-Nigerian academic, activist, broadcaster and teaching fellow in the Africa department at SOAS and a Visual Sociology PhD researcher at Goldsmiths. Her 2019 debut Don’t Touch My Hair, (Penguin) was an Irish Times Bestseller and published to critical and commercial acclaim. The book also inspired a national conversation about race and hair and has led to changing regulations in schools and in the British army.

A regular broadcaster on the BBC, Emma presented 'Back in Time Brixton' (BBC2), 'Britain's Lost Masterpieces' (BBC4), as well as the sociological experiment 'Is Love Racist?' (Ch4). Most recently, she hosted Radio 4's critically-acclaimed documentary 'Journeys into Afro-futurism’.

Ellie Mae O'Hagan is the Director of CLASS. Prior to CLASS, she worked as a strategic communications consultant. Ellie has worked under the mentorship and guidance of Arun Chaudury, one of the most important figures in global progressive politics who served as the official White House videographer for President Obama and Creative Director for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016.

Ellie has been a writer and broadcaster for 10 years, having been published in national and international media, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, the Independent, Vice Magazine & The Times. She has appeared on most mainstream current affairs programmes including the Andrew Marr Show, the Today Programme, Politics Live, Any Questions, Newsnight, Victoria Derbyshire, Sky News, BBC news, and others.