In this piece, BILT Student Fellow Elliot Green interviews Ali Waseem, an undergraduate Theatre Studies student at the University of Bristol.
What is your background?
I’m from Pakistan, and after high school, I took two gap years. In those two years I took time to think about where I wanted to go. At first, I wanted to go to America, but I decided not to due to the political climate. Then, I considered the UK, and after researching, I thought that Bristol was a beautiful city, so I decided to come here. Initially, I applied for sociology, but my dad didn’t really like the subject, so he convinced me to switch to theatre, which I do think was better suited for me in the end.
Do you have a particularly memorable learning experience?
It’s hard to choose, overall my course has been really memorable because I’ve had a lot of people who have been really kind to me, both staff and students in the faculty. People have made me feel very welcomed. At times when I felt that I didn’t exactly fit in, there were measured taken to ensure that I didn’t feel that way anymore.
The learning experience has been really great, and really diverse too. In our class sometimes they incorporate stuff about Pakistan media too. And it’s really nice that we explore stuff outside of the UK, and I love being able to talk about my own culture and background as part of my learning.
Do you feel a sense of belonging at the University?
Yeah, I’ve had a bunch of lecturers that have helped made me feel like I belong, especially since in theatre we work quite closely with them on essays and performance pieces. To give a more specific example, In second year I remember struggling with devising one of my theatre pieces, especially with blocking, and how my lecturers at the time were just so helpful and enthusiastic and really helped me through that. They have always been a big reason why I can stay engaged with my work and not give up when it gets hard.
When doing theatre, it can be difficult to feel like I belong because sometimes the classrooms are predominantly white, so it can be hard to understand each other’s perspectives. But I do believe the professors help guide us through that very well, they make sure to give everyone room to explore and bring together our different life experiences through our performances. It makes me feel like my differences are very valued in my course, and this really encourages me to engage with it.
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