The Bordescapes team is made of 14 dynamic University of Sussex Masters students. Led by Martin Spinelli, the hosts have been encouraged to use audio media to explore the different concept of borders.
Rishabh Ravindhar
Rishabh is a young filmmaker whose journey and passion started all the way from India. His first step into this field was when he directed his debut short film “Guard Down” for his academic project. This was when he knew he loved making films and he wanted this as his career, from then he has directed 4 other short films which all carry a wide range of genres.
Throughout his educational journey he has learned a lot with regards to his subject thanks to his bachelor’s degree. He says his learning path helped him understand how films work and it also gave him an understanding of how to work as a director and it also gave him the motivation, he needs to have in order to fulfil his passion project. He also branched a little away from film for a brief time to focus on music and he is also learning to create music that he could someday use in his own film.
This whole process has made him realise how hard filmmaking is and at the same time intrigued his love towards it even more. Currently, Rishabh is studying a master’s course in the University of Sussex to learn more about the filmmaking process and he is also working towards creating films and other media content that can help him collaborate his life with the rest of the world.
Katherine Jones
Katherine is doing her MA in Media Practice for Development and Social Change at the University of Sussex. Her undergraduate degree had a slightly different focus, however, having completed a degree in German and Russian last year. She decided to switch focus for her master’s course due to her long-standing interest in film studies and following her dissertation on Austrian cinema in the 1950s. Since starting this course, she has found a new interest in podcasting, helping to also produce podcasts for other projects.
Tousif Farhad
Tousif Farhad is an advocacy filmmaker and photographer based in Bangladesh. His work stretches from working with grassroots heroes to managing and directing the audiovisual storytelling unit of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO.
His work primarily focuses on topics related to gender, mental health, early childhood development and migration. Tousif’s curiosity to explore socio-cultural dynamics in Bangladesh allowed him to direct and film advocacy documentaries on various social issues like violence against women migrants, disability, and LGBTQ rights. His contribution to the visual ethnographic research on the relationship between care-givers and children played a vital role in structuring the curriculum for the first Play Labs in Bangladesh. Subsequently, his visual documentation of the Rohingya children in UNICEF’s Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) allowed him to create key advocacy contents for the first Humanitarian Play Labs in the Rohingya camps funded by the LEGO Foundation.
As an Audio-Visual Campaign Manager for BRAC, Tousif had the opportunity to work with and supervise award winning creative partners to produce hundreds of contents for all 18 programs of the organization. Most recently, Tousif led COVID AV Unit as part of BRAC’s Emergency Response Team.
So far in his career, Tousif had the opportunity to work with organizations like Gender Spectrum, JPGSPH, The Economist Educational Foundation and the World Health Organization. Currently a master’s student at the University of Sussex, Tousif is ever so curious to explore the critical aspects of development and hopes to incorporate his learning in his career as a media practitioner.
Yu-Hsin Chen
Yu-Hsin is a MA student pursuing Digital Media at the University of Sussex. Her undergraduate study on Cultural Industry Management, which triggered the will of further study about media. After having several different jungles of internships such as art museum narrator, e-commerce assistant, she found out the connection between digital technology and media which derived her to dig more about digital media. After coming to the UK, she learns more about interactive media and she is also working towards creating websites and other media content that can help her speak out for cultural “borders”.
Abdullah Almujahed
Abdullah is a person who loved the creation of the film industry, passionate to make good stories that telling different stories from the core of his culture and reflecting the beauty of his country Saudi Arabia. He wants to be part of the new movement of the cinema as it a new discipline there. He works as an assistant teacher at King Khalid University. He wants to change the core of teaching media subjects from theories to focus on practicing and trying to use all the materials students have to make good and touching stories.
Claudia Fernandez
Claudia is a young Cuban entrepreneur passionate about music and arts. Studying an MA in Digital Media to try and figure out how it all works and how to make the best out it. She has been working with artists and in the cultural scenario throughout her young professional career. Passionate about music, arts and bringing stories to people. Believes poetry and spoken word are beautiful forms of communication and has a soft spot for voices, which is why this Podcasting journey has been such a fantastic experience.
Jewel Atedou Bright
Jewel Atedou Bright is a development Journalist with a passion for using media and communication to drive sustainable participatory development in communities. Born and raised in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, Jewel’s childhood experience growing up in the region which has suffered a long history of underdevelopment and militant activism against marginalization inspired his career in development journalism. He holds a first degree in Mass Communication/Media studies and has over six years of volunteer and professional experience in broadcast journalism and public service. Jewel is currently studying a master’s in media practice for development and social change at the University of Sussex under the prestigious Chevening scholarship and looks forward to returning home armed with new and improved skills in using contemporary media techniques including podcasting to drive participatory development in the Nigerian Niger Delta and other parts of our rapidly changing world.
Wanxin Chen
Wanxin is an ordinary student who loves movies, music and with unrealistic fantasy sometimes, just like most people who have a headache for their finals, she is always sitting there and overthrow all her idea. She used to work for an entertainment company, but she missed the chance to work with her favourite actors. She had been invited to interview a mobile game company because the game she played, organized a terrible activity which driven her mad, so she sent serval emails of how to plan a decent game activity. This lesson taught her that large companies really do check their complaint mailbox. She is now doing her digital media MA and hoping to meet that actor eventually.
Jack Willard
Jack is a freelance journalist who has a huge passion for the creative arts industry, most particularly music and film. He studied journalism for his undergraduate degree, and it was whilst he was on that course, that he discovered that he wanted to get into podcasting. Halfway through his degree he set up his own music podcast and began speaking to different musicians from around the world. He is now currently studying an MA in Digital Media, where has gained a heavy interest in both production and software development. Jack hopes to one day work within the broadcasting industry where he can take all the key skills that he has learned from university and apply them to that industry.
Shannon Deddis
Shannon moved to Sussex three years ago with a passion for literature yet clueless of what the future may hold for her. While completing her BA in English she realised that she wanted to follow a more creative route and started exploring Screenwriting and Podcasting. Currently completing the Digital Media MA at Sussex, Shannon has been able to explore these options while having a passion for issues that the digital world presents us with, such as coded biases and digital surveillance. One day, she hopes to help improve the use of new technologies to ensure our right to privacy and unbiasedness.
George Townsend
Growing up surrounded by virtual worlds and internet culture has left George with a keen interest in all things digital – be it social media, digital communication, or virtual collectables. He now studies this in greater depth through his MA in digital media. A BA Geography graduate, one of George’s hobbies is sharing his passion for geography on his Instagram account @everythinggeography, which has allowed him to form a community of like-minded people. George hopes to live and work abroad in the near future, and is currently exploring the digital marketing industry to see if this is the place for him.
Yasmeen AlBusairi
Yasmeen is a Kuwaiti student who moved to Brighton in 2016 with a goal to get a BA degree in media practice. While completing her BA, Yasmeen had the feeling that her studying days are not over and she wanted to explore more so she decided to continue her studies and expand her knowledge and studies Filmmaking MA as she wanted to dive in depth of her creative side. Which led to her to explore podcasting. Yasmeen hopes to work in the film industry one day
Mona Youssef
Mona is a 20-year-old Egyptian student who used to live in Brighton but has moved back home to Egypt during the pandemic. Mona works in NGO digital marketing and has a passion for voice acting, podcasting and ceramics. While Mona has her feet on the ground, her head is often in the clouds thinking about gossip and pop culture, and celebrity trends and influences– which may seem like a shallow interest, but is in fact, the sweetest escape from reality to her.