Rebuilding belonging in a changing world

Good afternoon. I’m delighted to be part of the 21st Rosa Parks Symposium, and I’m truly grateful to join this fire panel discussion on the question: “Does my belonging threaten your belonging?”

My name is Nashwa. I’m an Associate Professor of Physics at Al Neelain University in Sudan, and currently a Cara Fellow in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London.

My journey to this room was not something I could have predicted. For years, my life was centered on a mission: How do we build world class research in Sudan, even with limited resources? I believed deeply that science could help our communities survive, innovate, and grow. That was my purpose to use physics to serve development, to strengthen students, and to contribute to our country’s economic future.

Then one morning, everything changed.

When the war began, universities were destroyed. Laboratories were lost. My students were displaced. My colleagues scattered. And I, like millions of Sudanese, was forced to leave my home and eventually my country, simply for safety.

Arriving in a new academic world, I carried two truths at once: relief for safety, and grief for everything left behind. I walked into the lab with my scientific expertise, but also with the feeling of loss and the question: Will I be seen as a scientist, or as a displaced scholar?

But belonging can be rebuilt. I found colleagues who opened their labs without hesitation. Institutions like Cara that refused to let my academic life disappear. And my host supervisor and research group members who treated me as a peer and not a case, not a story, but a scientist.

Yet there are also moments when I feel the boundaries of limited access to opportunities, being labelled visiting, sensing that my place is conditional. This is where today’s theme becomes real: Does my belonging threaten your belonging?

I don’t believe belonging is a competition. Scholars who have lived through conflict bring insight, resilience, creativity, and global understanding. Our presence does not threaten, it expands the community of knowledge.

For me, real belonging is simple: it is the moment when I no longer need to prove that I deserve to be in the room. When I can build a future again through my science and through meaningful contributions to the advancement of humanity.

And I want to close with the words of Rosa Parks, words I found on this event’s homepage, and words that remind me why we are here:

“I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.”