Eli Todorova

My name is Eli and I moved to nottingham 7 years ago as a student. Having come here as an immigrant I have grown to really love Nottingham and call it my home. Since finishing my studies, I have worked on hate crime for Nottinghamshire police, going on to my current role as a equality, diversity, and inclusion cooridnator at the University fo Nottingham.

I am passionate about improving equality and inclusion for those who face structural barriers, discrimination, and oppression. In particular, I believe that higher education plays an essential role in wider systems of structural racism, and while it can empower individuals, it can equally reinforce existing biases and inequalities. In particular I am interested in addressing the racial inequality we see within higher education. My interest in this area has meant that I am one of the race equality theme leads at the university, I sit on our race equality action plan implementation group and last year I was appointed to a national governance committee for the Race Equality Charter.

During my time as a scholar I will explore different approaches, initiatives, and innovative ideas that work towards tackling racial inequality across the USA with the hope of applying these ideas in my race equality work at the University of Nottingham. I am hoping to explore academic work, grassroots organisations, as well as large-scale projects in public institutions.

I am hoping that my project will have a wide-reaching impact and that I will be able to share my findings with people across Nottinghamshire and in the higher education sector beyond. I hope that I will be able to bring innovative ideas and initiatives that are proven to work to make higher educaiton more inclusive for those who have been traditionally disadvantaged.

Being selected for as a 2022 Roosevelt travelling scholar is an amazing honour and I know this experience will be invaluable for my career and for my personal development. I am looking forward to representing the university and the city during my travels.