Dr Foluke Adebisi and law students at TISCA 2019: Plenary talk, workshop and student award

Press release issued: 25 April 2019

Earlier this month, the Law School’s Dr Foluke Adebisi and five Law students attended The International Students Conference for Africa (TISCA) at the University of Lancaster, where Foluke gave a plenary talk and a workshop, and where final-year law student Julio Mkok received an award for outstanding achievements in the academic year 2018-2019.

TISCA - previously called the International Conference of Nigerian Students (ICONS) – is an annual event hosted in partnership with top UK Universities. The conference was organised by XN Foundation, whose aims include highlighting opportunities for and outstanding achievements by African international students.

The theme for TISCA 2019, which took place 5 - 7 April, was ‘African Students & Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’.

Dr Foluke Adebisi, who was awarded an ICONS award for ‘Formidable Dedication and Innovative Pursuits for Africa’ at TISCA 2018, gave a plenary talk titled 'Getting to the future by revisiting the past: Law, history, education, knowledge in Africa'. Foluke also led a workshop on 'why decolonisation of education and knowledge in Africa is an urgent task'.

Commenting on the event, Foluke said:

“I had one of my happiest intellectual days of 2019 at TISCA 2019, where I led an interactive session on decolonising knowledge and research with the most diverse and engaged group I have ever seen.

Every level of higher education from undergraduate to Senior Lecturer was represented. The education attaché from the Kenya High Commission to the UK, Mrs Dorothy Kamwilu, was also in attendance. Disciplines such as Computing, Law, Cultural Theory, Politics contributed to the conversation. People from a broad range of countries were there; European, African, Asian, Caribbean countries, it was a very enriching and transdisciplinary conversation about imagination and possibility.”

This year law student Julio Mkok was awarded a prize for outstanding achievements in the academic year 2018/19. His nomination information read:

'Julio Mkok is a much-valued member of the student community at the University of Bristol, who is known to be intelligent, there for anyone who needs him, insanely funny and always able to make someone, even on their worst day, crack a smile.

A final year Law Student, Julio has endeavoured to speak up for and represent his fellow students since the moment he arrived at the University. Throughout his entire degree at the University of Bristol he has been a course representative for LLB Law students at the University as he feels strongly that all students, and particularly International students, should have a voice. After talking to his fellow Kenyan, Ugandan and Ethiopian students he noticed that they felt they did not have as strong a presence in the university as other communities did and so took the initiative to set up Bristol’s first East African Society, last year, to riotous success.

This year he has continued to represent students, with over 1400 people electing him to become Bristol Students Union’s Union Affairs Officer. He hopes to continue improving student experiences at the University within this role, on a much wider scale than before as he is now able to affect the lives of all students at the University. One of the key initiatives his campaign ran on was ‘improving student experience.’

Describing the event, Julio said:

“On Saturday night, there was a banquet dinner and awards night, where I had the honour of receiving the ICONS Award for outstanding achievements in this past academic year 2018/19, which included establishing the University's first Bristol East African Society as Charter President, being elected three years consecutively as a Law Course Rep and finally my recent election as one of the 7 Sabbatical Officers of the Bristol Student's Union - Union Affairs Officer. I was both humbled and proud to be presented with this award by Dr Akanimo Odon, CEO of the XN Foundation and organiser of TISCA 2019.”

Second-year law student Constance Abbey spoke about her Conference experience:

“I gained a lot of knowledge from the TISCA programme this year. The lectures were really interesting and made me reflect on how I can make an impact in my country – and also made a definite impact on my concept of leadership.

I was really excited to gain helpful tips about improving my CV from Dr Akanimo Odon’s lecture; I realized all I needed to do was push myself to do more, and gain experience from any and every available opportunity. I was happy to attend the conference - thanks for the opportunity.”

Further information

Dr Foluke Adebisi is a Teaching Fellow at the Law School, University of Bristol. Her research, which is pedagogical as well as jurisprudential, examines what happens at the intersection of legal education, law, society and a history of changing ideas of what it means to be human.

This research places emphasis on the processes through which knowledge is produced and how this production shapes the content of our curricula, the structure of the university and the collective impact on society, especially in terms of law, both domestic and international.

Foluke is particularly interested in academic concerns that arise from ensuring equality, inclusion and diversity within our teaching practice in law. She co-designed a Law and Race unit, one of the very few of its kind within the UK.

In October 2018, Foluke was included in the Bristol BAME Powerlist 2018 – A list of Bristol’s 100 most inspiring people from BAME backgrounds.

As founder and director of Forever Africa Conference and Events (FACE), Foluke brought together University staff and students to hold a launch event in 2018, which explored the long- and short- term goals needed to strengthen Pan-African staff and student links within the University, the local community and national and regional research and education initiatives. Foluke is currently organising FACE 2019.

Find out more about FACE by visiting the Director of FACE Dr Foluke Adebisi's website.