My Sussex Lecturers

Another culture shock I had when I arrived in the Uk to study is addressing lecturers by their names without prefixes such as “Sir”, “Mr”, “Ma”, “Dr. Mrs”, “Chief”, etc, which for Africans or Nigerians in particular, denotes respect. It appalled me that no matter the level of qualification people in the UK have attained, eg. Ph.D., Professorship, etc, they were addressed simply by their first names. I found this really odd and discomforting, following my background as a Nigerian where addressing someone older by their names is seen as rude and disrespectful. This was a clash that I struggled to adapt to for a long time.

I remember resisting the urge to ask questions in class because I didn’t know how to start my question without a “sir”, a term that isn’t the norm here; and for a long time, I still sent emails to my lecturers beginning with “Hello Sir”, “Hello Mrs. Anke...”, even though I wasn’t sure whether she’s a Mrs or not. 😂 I’ve also struggled with this at my workplace, as I found it a bit odd addressing my boss by his first name, but I think I’ve gradually settled into the norm here.

Meet my course conveners, Dr. Yorgos Karagiannakis and Dr. Anke Schwittay (at least I can add a Dr. because they are both Ph.D. holders, lol).

Anke Schwittay, Anthropologist, & Lecturer in Global Studies, Uni Sussex

Yorgos Karagiannakis, Lecturer, Documentary filmmaking, Uni Sussex.

Yorgos is Greek, and Anke is German. The former is a Documentary Filmmaker and the latter an Anthropologist. Both of them made our study at Sussex worthwhile. I call them the mom and dad of my course. Their names are tongue twisters but I took the challenge to memorize it, and now, even in my sleep, I can spell their names offhand. 😂

Yorgos gave more of the “dad” vibe. I took two of the modules he taught: Producing Media for Development and Social Change; and Short Documentary Research & Practice. He taught us all the basics of making documentary films, doing research, conducting interviews, and the ethics behind it all. It wasn’t all that easy for me especially because I was switching from a Business Administration background in my Undergrad to a Media background for my Master's degree, albeit it was an interesting switch.

Yorgos was more like a typical Nigerian lecturer, a no-nonsense man 😂 highly feared and respected, but I love him because he is down to earth. His favorite words were "Play with it", he said that often when he was trying to encourage us to put into practice what we have learned in his class. He also often said (which is my favorite of his words) “you don’t make a film and keep it on the shelf”, as a way of encouraging us to make films and put it out there, by applying to as many film festivals as we can. Thank you, Yorgos!

“You don’t make a film and keep it on the shelf” - Yorgos, 2021.

"Play with it" - Yorgos, 2021. 

                                 

Progress & Yorgos

Just before I move on to Anke, we had an interesting experience with one of our lecturers, Peter Hart, during one of our online lectures. We mimicked Peter's outfit without him knowing. The amazing part was that it happened like a coup, lol.

So it was during class that day, we noticed our lecturer was wearing a blue jumper, a color which he often didn't wear. One of our classmates dropped a message on our Whatsapp group chat and said "Hey guys, did you all notice Peter's outfit today"? Then another of our classmates dropped a suggestion and said "How about we all wear something blue too, to match Peter's outfit".

Coursemates slowly changing outfits to blue

Lecturer at the top left corner of the screen

And that was how the coup began. Slowly, one after the other, we all began to change our outfits. People would turn off their zoom camera and come back looking all blue. lol

Our lecturer didn't notice what was happening on the screen until after we came back from a 10mins break and all 12 of us had changed into blue outfits matching his outfit and also his blue eyes. It became a blue screen. It was so beautiful. Some of our coursemates who didn't have blue outfits made sure they added a touch of blue to their outfits or background. One wore a blue lanyard, another a blue hairband, one got a blue yoga mat beside her, blue water bottle, blue curtain, and one even dressed her dog in blue, hahaha. It was a hilarious moment, and such an amazing experience while class was on. The lecturer was so shocked when he looked up and saw that we were all smiling at him, he was wondering what was going on, and then we told him what we had done. Such a memorable experience.

Blue transformed screen

A dog dressed in blue to match our lecturer's outfit

Anke on the other hand was more like a “mom” to all. I took one of her modules: Activism for Development and Social Change which had one of my favorite topics - Resistance, Empathy & Subaltern Voices. And also through her module, I learned about the work of this quintessential woman Spivak Gyatiari, critic and feminist. Anke's module also made me engage in a hypothetical campaign about “How Homeless People can access the COVID-19 vaccine”, and my team and I produced an amazing report on the project.

I love Anke because she is always ready to listen; I loved the way she carried everyone along and took her time to break down scary anthropological terms such as “Anthropocentrism” ( I struggled with this one 😂), “Neo-extractivism”, “post-humanitarianism”, etc. We once had a brilliant lecturer whose grammar in lecturing was “up there”, one would need to have the dictionary by their side when attending his lectures. 😂 So I quite understand what it means to have a lecturer who breaks down the terms and made sure everyone understood, and that person is Anke Schwittay!❤️

Progress & Anke

Also, I noticed that students who are natives of the UK were not really enthusiastic about taking photos with their lecturers as we the international students were. And I think that’s quite understandable because I also can’t remember taking photos or selfies with my Nigerian lecturers during my undergrad. 😅 

But supposing there were White students or other international students who came to study in Nigeria, I guess they will most likely celebrate and take photos with the same lecturers, who we, - “the local champions” - have become 'over-familiar' with. 😂 Little wonder they say “A prophet is never valued in this own home”. Lol

Class of 2021.

Media Practice for Dev. & Social Change, Uni Sussex

With the presence of international students, lecturers here have become “celebrities”, lol, as international students are always excited about taking photos with them, (I am not excluded) lol. But I guess lecturers should be used to such by now.

Today, I celebrate two great people Anke and Yorgos whose academic impact made a huge difference in my academic pursuit!

I love you! ❤️ 

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