My degree is a two-year MPhil in Political Theory, total tuition is £28,030.
I am black, broke and trans. Help someone from my background achieve success as I seek to represent the needs of the ever-expanding population of marginalized youth. There is a desperate need for more young left-wing women in politics who truly stand for the rights of the working wage-laboured class, the rights of ethnic minorities, fighting facism, and supporting the LGBTQQIA community. I seek to empower people, not repress them. I believe I represent the future of politics in the UK.
I already have a crowdfunding profile elsewhere and have raised £745. I have also been given a £6000 scholarship from Soka University of America, my Alma Mater. Thus, so far I have already raised £6745.
I work three jobs to support my family. Unlike most Oxford students, I don't have mummy's money to ask for and my daddy doesn't have a trust fund in place for me. I don't have people in the media to elevate and publicise my cause.
My REWARDS will be paper roses. Those paper roses will make them feel better and improve their lives.
Quick Facts:
- I am mixed-race: Black, Turkish and European white. I am transgendered.
- I speak/read/write four languages fluently: English, Turkish, Azerbaijani and Chinese Mandarin
- My undergraduate degree at Soka University of America was fully funded as a part of an SOS scheme to provide low-income students access to education. I thus moved from London to Southern California in 2010 upon receiving this wonderful offer of a place at a humanistic institution that seeks to "foster a steady stream of global citizens leading a contributing life."
- I graduated with GPA 4.0 at the undergraduate level, with over 41 A's and A+'s. I finished first in my class.
- In 2013, my term paper was accepted to the Marxist Sociology section panel, "Marxist Analysis of Intersectionalities, Margins and Challenges to the Status Quo: Class, Gender, Identity, Race and Sexualities" at the American Sociological Association (ASA,) the first ever undergraduate to be honored with a place on the panel.
- My work mainly focuses on the intersectionality of Marxist theory with issues of race, gender, sex and sexuality. My research focuses on: womens rights, queer theory, the British political system and the history of labour movements, black youth organisations in the UK/ black power, brown queer movements, international law pertaining to women, women and the Middle East, the growing facist right in Europe, inequality and critiques of capitalism, socialism/marxism and of course my idol, and academic great-grandfather, Karl Marx.
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I have encountered numerous challenges as a transgendered woman of colour and have worked tirelessly to get to this point. I began 'transitioning' so to speak (hormones), at the age of 18 and have come to a point where I embrace and my body and my identity. I have experienced wide range systematic racism, classicism and gender prejudice. I was raised in a low-income household to two wonderful parents.
In terms of my inspiration for my application to Oxford, the London Riots from 2011 proved a lack of organisation and political ideology amongst youth in Britain today. I reject the claims that these individuals simply sought disorder. Indeed, many were engaged in misguided criminal activities. However, the marginalization of the rioting youth, the treatment of black youths by the police during those riots and the level of desperation that exists amongst youth, resulted from the structural denial of access to capital and exclusions from political representation.
Excluded from political representation, many youth are continuing to grow in anger and frustration. This anger must be channeled into productive social activity by offering youth the ability to voice their views within this system from which they feel so alienated. Only then, will the UK be truly democratic and can we achieve true representation of the masses. Therefore, my current interests lie with those rejected as vital to the construction of British social fabric, as I work to create change and work with them in the process of political participation.
My goal is to engage in interdisciplinary projects pertaining to the right to life, fair distribution of resources, education, and equal protection by and from the law, projects that will contribute to the betterment of British society at large. I am therefore concerned with young women from ethnic minority backgrounds and young black males, both of whom experience systematic denial and exclusion.
My aim is to become a Member of Parliament in the UK and work hard within the British political system as part of a new era of political activists and representatives, a new generation of politically active youth. We desperately need new, aspiring, young scholars and activists who are working to formulate a new vision of the future and uphold a new ideal of what society could become. In order to do this, we must rethink the notion of democracy, society, community, gender and gender categorization, as well as how we engage with political theory.
Please empower me by donating today and help me to become one of maybe a handful of transgender Oxford graduates and the first ever prominent transgender British political activist and politician.
With love, appreciation, gratitude and thanks.
Zu
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THE NUMBERS:
The total requested covers my full tuition for two years, college fees, room & board, as outlined by Oxford University.
Tuition and College Fees per year - £28,030
Room & Board- £31,962
TOTAL: £59,992.00
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THE REWARDS
I will donate paper roses towards these projects that I wish to establish and support. I will be making the paper roses myself.
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Raising £14,015 will just cover my first year of tuition fees. As long as I make my first year's tuition, I can attend.
Hence why the minimum required and the target have such a wide gap between them, as the target amount is the TOTAL for EVERYTHING, for two years. Homeless or not, at least I will be able to enrol, go to class and fulfill my REWARDS.
* 3.5% Paypal fees are included
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[ My professor, Dr Ryan Caldwell and I at the ASA 2013, New York: "Marxist Analysis of Intersectionalities, Margins and Challenges to the Status Quo: Class, Gender, Identity, Race and Sexualities"]
