Allison George, alumna, volunteer and donor, on the importance of giving back to SOAS

As we head toward the SOAS scholarship appeal in November, it is important to consider why people want to remain in touch with their university. What is it that makes people want to support current students through scholarships, to donate to the Library or to their department, and to stay in touch – not just with the close friends they made, but with SOAS as an institution?

We spoke with Allison George (MSc State, Society and Development 2002) to discover what drives her to keep engaged with SOAS, and why it holds such a special place in many of our lives.

“I studied Law and Sociology at another university in London and that set the foundation for lots of the lenses that I was able to use at SOAS, trying to understand about social conditions, political conditions and frameworks.

I grew up in Northwest London for the most part. My mother's Caribbean and my father's from West Africa. Coming from families from the Global South enriched my experience of being a Londoner and contributing to London culture.

I was always curious and I loved people, wanting to make lots of different friendships but also wanting to understand where they'd come from, how they'd come to be. Not so much their ethnicity, but their own specific journey. Immediately after I completed my degree, I went to work in India, I think SOAS inspired that move. 

I discovered SOAS through the library. In my previous sociology course many institutions looked through only one lens, where I was trying to understand a full, worldly picture, and that meant accessing SOAS Library. We would be taught and you’d research, but you only had exposure to certain authors and ideas, where SOAS provided an alternative and enriching, fuller picture of the world.

I had decided that I probably wanted to work for the United Nations or somewhere similar. In 2001-2002, SOAS had a Masters in State, Society and Development. This married the curiosity I had for sociology with the curiosity around politics. I was searching with questions such as ‘how do some countries come to have while others don't?’ and the dichotomies within societies and how they happen.”

How was your time at SOAS?

It makes me quite emotional. There were professors who were not like other academics I’d engaged with. They had dedicated their lives to understanding things about the whole world, and I was so grateful; they were really committed to what they were doing; they had travelled and seen things.

I remember being in a small group where I did a presentation. The whole class surrounded me because they thought what I presented was good and had different ideas. I’d never had that feeling before. It was one of Professor Donal Cruise O’Brien’s classes drawing, comparisons and analysis between Africa and Asia. Everybody was so encouraging. I’d always felt on the periphery of understanding, but at SOAS I felt that my perspective was valued and it didn’t have to fit in to a shoe box of someone else’s thought to be considered adequate or even intellectual.

It was in the student bar that I really saw that SOAS could hold the space for different views. I remember there were people at opposite ends of perspectives having discussions. Seeing that take place in real life at SOAS was interesting. It’s not like we were part of a UN body or in the news, it was real people giving their perspectives in a way that felt safe.

There’s also the relationships and friendships I formed. I made deep connections and I’m still in contact with many people. SOAS was a place of fun but also vibrant intellectualism with committed professors who introduced narratives and ways of thinking, which may be more prevalent now, but at that time were new to many people.

How has SOAS influenced your career?

After I completed my MSc, I went to the Careers Office - whom I must thank - and obtained a placement at DfID (now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) in a department called Business Alliances Team.

We created an international standard for the mining, oil and gas industries. This standard has held up and is copied and used for the journey of transparency and disclosure in the extractive industry. I was part of the team which created the EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) and its criteria: to disclose payments and receipts between governments and companies, to have someone external reconcile the data in an audit etc.

The lens of my SOAS Masters helped to build that standard. I argued that there are different kinds of corruption – managed and unmanaged – and when we look at the world, we can see that there are many things which people might class as corrupt practices. I pushed for EITI not just to be about the Global South, but to include the Global North. I went on to implement this initiative across different countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

I worked with the World Bank to design mineral technical assistance projects, looking at the value chain from a governance perspective. My time at SOAS influenced that again because of the lenses I was using and being open to understanding meant that I could build projects rapidly because I would take into consideration different stakeholder perspectives.

I also thought about sustainable development mechanisms for how revenue is used: creating environmental impact assessments and social impact assessments. These are concepts that are common language in industry today, but SOAS provided the foundation for that kind of governance thinking, stakeholder engagement and analysis. So, projects are formed in a way that is meaningful, tangible, not just performative – a way that governments, industries and communities can see benefit for themselves.

I later worked with the Tony Blair Institute as a mining adviser. In Rwanda I worked setting up a mining rights management system and helping to ignite their domestic mining potential through extraction and processing. I worked with young professionals, SOAS, and the University of Rwanda to think about what type of industry was desired, what vision they had, what role mining plays and how that enables progress that is needed domestically and regionally, whether that’s infrastructure, improved relations or economic planning.

My current role is as a subject matter expert for an operations consultancy DSS+. I’ve worked with governments, industry and communities in the UK and across the globe on how to make companies fit for purpose for dealing with the world, whether that’s supply chain resilience, geopolitics, understanding how different states and societies need to develop , how mining has a role, all using that SOAS lens. My SOAS experience enriches, furthers and accelerates my understanding and perspective.

People can be cynical about the industry. Like with everything, there’s a good and a bad side, but mining is a service and it provides everything from your MRI scan, to your glasses or mobile phone.

Where I am now is definitely influenced by SOAS, thinking about how I speak on the mining sector, because we do have a tension on the planet. We’re working on how to operationalise things for companies, so that environmental, social and governance is made part of the fibre of operations.

I’m currently writing a book aiming to provide a holistic perspective of the mining industry especially in the Global South, and my publishers – Cassava Republic – mentioned that they had used SOAS Library. My book is targeted at people who aren’t highly informed about mining. I’m hoping that one day, it will take its own place in SOAS library.

How are you engaged with SOAS?

I’m part of the London Alumni Group Committee created to engage and facilitate with others such as the Careers Department, Advancement, SOAS staff and alumni who want to create networks and build on alliances.

There are many tensions in the world today – visible, local and geopolitical – and the London Alumni Group is connected with so many other people who want to build on that ‘soul’ which SOAS has; the connectivity and engagement to see things in a different way and hear different perspectives. It’s a way for us to come together and I’m really grateful for it.

There’s also a fundraising aspect: to allow this kind of engagement, it’s critical for the institution to be fully resourced.

We launched the group earlier this year, which was phenomenal because so many people got involved. People contacted us through social media - even people who had done short courses, not necessarily degrees - wanting to be part of it. It’s very exciting.

I’m part of the careers and mentoring committee and I’ve connected the Careers Office at SOAS with a recruiter who has helped me throughout my career. She’s organising access to a workshop on how to get into a career in finance for SOAS students. I’ve also connected Careers to one of the editors of Semafor, a journalist who writes for the New York Times, and a contact at Bloomberg. 

I think it’s important to use my network and engagement to give back to SOAS.

You also donate to SOAS. What is your motivation for giving?

SOAS provides different intellectual dimensions for thinking. You go to SOAS if you are searching for something more, and want to understand more – if you are curious. I’m motivated to give because I want people to have access to those opportunities. It shouldn’t be kept in a bubble, it should be clearly on display for people to see, to taste and to feel, to probe and engage.

The Library is also a great resource and with digitisation making things more available, it’s an electric place. There are so many hidden things and I want to contribute. 

SOAS is a demonstration of a space that has managed to survive the test of time, through all the evolutions of its history. I’m happy to pay for that and to contribute in whatever way I can. I want people to feel welcome when they come regardless of perspective – it’s a space for discussion, a space for new thinking and a space for argument.

You may not realise what difference a donation may make to someone’s life. It doesn’t need to be a big bang to create a difference; one pound will contribute to an area of SOAS. You don’t need to think in terms of large cheques, it can be just £5 or £10, these things can be manageable and still make a difference.

If you do have deeper pockets, or access to funds, you can really help to support stability and balance in the world. Thinking about the role SOAS has played in your life as an alumna or alumnus and indeed can continue to play as a space for intellectually diverse thought, a space that welcomes perspectives from places outside the norm. 

SOAS can continue to be a beacon of hope. As SOAS alumni, we can contribute to deeper and more enriched thought, with well researched ideas and a holistic picture, looking outside of one set world view.

If you would like to make a donation please visit our website and keep on the lookout for our Scholarship appeal in November 2024.