Usawa is a new mobile game exploring the issue of descent-based slavery in an Afro-futurist environment.

A collaboration between Dr Marie Rodet from SOAS Department of History, Malian NGOs and African creative industries, Usawa features mini-games and stories inspired by real-life accounts of those affected by the issues of descent-based slavery drawing on insights from Dr Rodet’s research project Slavery and Forced Migration in Western Mali.

A team of 40 African artists, developers and producers turned the stories into a playable game, which is now ready to download. It is available in English, French, Bambara and Swahili, and has already won an impact award at the Fak’ugesi Awards.

Dr Richard Hylton from SOAS Department of History of Art and Archaeology has devised and produced this spoken word record revisiting the stories of Black immigration in Britain through the voices of 37 volunteers across the UK.

Public Library UK Vol 1, After Kenneth Little, 2024, this limited edition spoken-word double vinyl LP about immigration and its legacies in Britain was made possible through a SOAS Research Culture Award and will have its public launch at SOAS Gallery on 15 January.

It features modern voices reading excerpts from American sociologist Leonard Bloom’s 1972 introduction to the reprinting of Negroes in Britain by Kenneth Little, a book first published in 1948, a year now fabled as the beginning of the “Windrush generation” and a turning point for race relations in the UK.

A new project in Sri Lanka will raise awareness of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through a targeted public health campaign. AMR is one of the greatest threats to global health and development, responsible for 1.27 million deaths in 2019 (UN). Often the result of misuse or overuse of antibiotics in farming and health, it is particularly prevalent in low-and-middle income countries.

Led by SOAS’s Dr Risa Morimoto and Professor Ayona Silva-Fletcher from Royal Veterinary College, a new project in Sri Lanka aims to raise awareness of this issue, targeting children and young people through specially designed storybooks, comics and film created in the three main languages of Sri Lanka; Sinhala, Tamil and English. It will be disseminated to primary schools across the country in the coming months.

Five SOAS alumni have been recognised for their achievements in the 2025 New Year Honours list.

Rose Aidin (MA History of Art, 1994) receives an MBE for her work with Art History Link Up, which she founded in 2016 to provide opportunities for state school pupils to study art history.

Martin Daltry (MA Near and Middle Eastern Studies, 1998) receives an OBE for his work with the British Council in the Occupied Palestinian Territories strengthening English teaching and helping Palestinian students to access UK universities.

Emily Halban (Asian Art, 2004) receives the BEM for her work tackling isolation, loneliness and anxiety through art by developing an after-school programme for young children and founding A Space Between providing therapeutic art programmes in care settings.

Dr James Hoare (PhD Japanese History, 1971) receives an OBE for his prominent work on the Korean peninsula through a long career in the diplomatic service and the writing of 37 books.

Edwina Sassoon (Asian Art, 2017) receives an MBE for services to visual arts, museums and gardens through her arts consultancy and roles at several institutions.