Khadija Badri
Khadija completed an English Language BA in 2016. During her studies, she became interested in the social aspects of the language and the ways it linked to social justice and equality. Khadija now works as a Community Engagement Manager at the National Institute for Health and Care research.
About Khadija's career
Describe your current role:
I work for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR supports the NHS and social care sector to do research to improve how we treat and look after our health. My role is all about making sure health and social care research is more inclusive and representative of different groups and communities across the country. At the moment, certain groups have less access to opportunities to take part in health research depending on where they live or barriers that might prevent them from being able to take part. This means the research informing our health and social care services doesn’t reflect their needs.
I coordinate a national programme where we work with community organisations and community members to listen to people’s views about research. We use what they tell us to provide better ways for people to participate in health and social care research in a way that meets their needs and interests and responds to local health inequalities.
There are many elements to an English Language degree, so you can tailor it to what you’re interested in. I was interested in the social aspects of the language and the ways it links to social justice and equality, which is what my career focuses on.
How did you get into this job after studying English Language at Newcastle?
After graduating from Newcastle, I moved to London to study for an MSc in Migration and Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies, as I was really interested in migrant and refugee rights. I spent a couple of years working for an NGO that advocated for stateless people’s right to a nationality. Part of my job there was to build the organisation’s campaigning and advocacy work with stateless people, making sure they were given the platforms and power to speak about the issue for themselves. I really enjoyed this part of my job and wanted to focus full-time on community engagement work that was all about making sure the people affected by an issue are able to influence decision-making. That’s when I found my current role at NIHR.
Studying English Language at Newcastle University
How has studying English Language at Newcastle helped you in your career?
I’ve been responsible over the last year for developing an evaluation of our community engagement programme and writing up a report of that work. The social science and writing skills I developed as part of my English Language degree really helped me with this, as it involved compiling a lot of information into a clear piece of writing with a summary, methodology of what we did, findings and conclusions. I’m also considering teaching English abroad at some point, and schools are very interested in people having an English Language degree when looking for English teachers, so that will be a massive help too.
What advice would you give to a student interested in studying English Language?
There are so many elements to an English Language degree that means you can really tailor it to what you’re interested in. If you have an interest in history, there’s the historical development of the language, or there’s child language development if you’re interested in psychology or early years and education careers. For me, I was really interested in the social aspects of the language and some of the ways it linked to social justice and equality, which is what my career has focused on. So I would say, find the areas that interest you the most, and you can really shape the degree and relate it to things you might want to focus on in the future.
What was the best thing about studying English Language at Newcastle?
I enjoyed learning about the sociology of language and was particularly interested in language and ethnicity and some of the research into how racial discrimination can even infiltrate into our conversations and how we perceive other people by the way they talk. I think it has a lot of relevance to some of the wider social issues and really brought the subject to life for me.