Out in School: Gender, Sexuality and Fundamentalism

Maureen Freely
Editorial collective member of Feminist Dissent; author, journalist, translator and academic; Chair of English PEN and advocate for writers at risk, especially in Turkey.

Elly Barnes
Elly Barnes is the founder and chief executive of Educate and Celebrate, an organisation focused on tackling homophobia and bullying in schools. In 2015, she was shortlisted for the National Diversity Awards.

Ruth Marx
Ruth Marx has been teaching in Tower Hamlets for 8 years as a Secondary School Religious Studies teacher. In 2014, she completed a Farmington Fellowship at Oxford University investigating the role of the Religious Studies teacher as a progressive force in a secondary school. She draws upon her links with the Inclusive Mosque Initiative, the Safra Project and the Naz and Matt Foundation, to enrich her teaching in Tower Hamlets.

Razia Aziz
Razia Aziz has studied and worked professionally in the field of diversity, equality and inclusion for over 20 years as a researcher, writer, coach, consultant, trainer and facilitator. In 2010 Razia co-founded the Equality Academy, an organization that offers coaching, consultancy and training to the corporate sector. Her work and study span the fields of counseling, coaching, voice and bodywork, performing arts and interfaith ministry.

Udaramati Pope
Udaramati Pope works in Nottingham Trent University. She has been involved in teaching, learning and research for over twenty years, at all levels from secondary English teaching to postgraduate PhD supervision, and has led programmes of initial teacher education at secondary level. She has worked at the University of Warwick, Newman University Birmingham, Loughborough University and Royal Holloway University of London. She has also recently worked as a consultant for Ofqual, leading the validation of the new A Levels.

Michael McCartan
McCartan is a Sexual Health Education Officer at the Rainbow Project Northern Ireland.

Mandeep S. Sehmi
Sehmi is a PhD student at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University.