Sanctuary in Education

Join us to learn how the University of Greenwich is responding to the global issue of forced displacement and our intention to do more in collaboration with our local, national and international communities.

Guests are invited to a networking reception and private viewing of The Spider is the Clock by Umama Hamido, a Lebanese artist and filmmaker currently living in London.

In the Project Space is an exhibition by filmmaker and alum Bukola Bakinson, whose documentary No Comprendo explores multiculturalism in the context of the criminal justice system.

Who should attend

We welcome all staff, students, alumni and friends who have experienced forced migration or who support those who do, or would like to support in future. We also welcome anyone interested in attending the private viewing (see details below).

What to expect

Hear how the University of Greenwich currently supports students who experience forced migration, including our pledges to become a University of Sanctuary. We also want to explore how we can collaborate with attendees to do more, including our intention to develop our Sanctuary Scholarship through fundraising or partnership opportunities.

The event is free to attend. However, if you would like to support the Sanctuary Scholarship at University of Greenwich, you can make a donation online.

About the Exhibitions

Umama Hamido is a Lebanese artist and filmmaker currently living in London. Through montages of performance, film, sound and text, she addresses experiences of loss, yearning and remembrance. She employs cine verité footage and audio recordings to explore the politics of space – imagined and real – as she negotiates the human relation to traumatic spaces and how the formation of the self is affected in the context of separation and marginality in Lebanon and its neighbouring countries.

The Spider is the Clock draws on her friendship with Mohammad, who had lived without legal status, and without being able to work legally or travel outside the UK for more than 20 years. Umama was new to London and was beginning to learn about the world of seeking asylum in the UK. They met outside Stratford Shopping Centre in 2018 when he approached her with a copy of his drawings.

They filmed together for many years, capturing their encounters and Mohammad's journey since he first lived as an undocumented migrant in London.

The exhibition invites the audience to enter Mohammad's cosmic world and reflect on the endless details of his experience manifested in the drawings and compositional representations of his environment, utilising film and sound.

Bukola Bakinson is a recent Film and Television Production graduate from the University of Greenwich. Bukola directed No Comprendo, a student documentary film selected for five film festivals and nominated for an AMAA Award under the Best Diaspora Short Film category in 2021 and also won the RTS Student Award for Best Documentary in 2022.

No Comprendo asks whether Britain's criminal justice system works in a 21st-century multicultural society today. Its purpose is to inspire dialogue that will facilitate change and get people to talk about the language and culture that causes miscommunication in the criminal justice system.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Stephen Lawrence Gallery, 10 Stockwell Street, London, United Kingdom