Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown came to this country in 1972 from Uganda. She completed her M.Phil. in literature at Oxford in 1975. She is a journalist who has written for The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Evening Standard, and other newspapers and is now a regular columnist on The Independent.

She is also a radio and television broadcaster and author of several books. Her book, No Place Like Home, well received by critics, was an autobiographical account of a twice removed immigrant.

Since 1996 she has been a Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research which published True Colours, on the role of government on racial attitudes. Tony Blair launched the book in March 1999. She is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre.

In 2000 she published, Who Do We Think We Are?, recently published in the US too, an acclaimed book on the state of the nation and another book, After Multiculturalism, which looks at the globalised future. She advises various key institutions on race matters. She is also a regular public speaker in Britain, European countries and the US.

In 2001 came the publication of the paperback of Who Do we Think We Are? and Mixed Feelings, a book on mixed race Britons which has been praised by all those who have reviewed it to date.

In June 1999, she received an honorary degree from the Open University for her contributions to social justice. She is a Vice President of the United Nations Association, UK and has also agreed to be a special ambassador for the Samaritans. She has just been appointed President of the Institute of Family Therapy.

She is married with a twenty four year old son and nine year old daughter. In the 2001 she was appointed an MBE for services to journalism in the new years honours list. In July 2003 was honoured at the Liverpool John Moore’s University- she was made Honorary Fellow.

In 2003 she returned her MBE as a protest against the new empire in Iraq and a growing republicanism. In 2004, she will be awarded an honorary degree by the Oxford Brookes University .

In April 2004, her film on Islam for Channel 4 won an award.

Awards:

BBC ASIA Award for achievement in writing 1999

Commission for Racial Equality special award for outstanding contribution to journalism 2000

EMMA Media Personality of the Year 2000

Windrush Outstanding Merit award 2000

Final shortlist for the Rio Tinto prize for journalism 2001

GG2 Leadership and Diversity award Media Personality of the Year 2001

George Orwell Prize for political journalism 2002

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