Important research over the past decade has exposed stark racial inequalities in wealth ownership, pushing the racial wealth gap to the forefront of today’s inequality debates.
This event marks the launch of ‘Why the UK Racial Wealth Divide Matters: a call for action’, a major new report written by the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ International Inequalities Institute for the Runnymede Trust. Mike Savage, Mina Mahmoudzadeh, and Esiri Bukata will share key findings from the report, highlighting the vast scale of the racial wealth divide and how it has changed in the context of the booming of wealth assets in recent decades. They will also examine the lasting influence of imperial history, the importance of viewing the UK in a global context, and how the remittance economy both reflects global inequalities and perpetuates the racial wealth divide in the UK. The event will be joined by Runnymede CEO Dr Shabna Begum and Dr Kojo Koram (Birkbeck College), who will reflect on the findings and explore their wider implications for racial justice campaigning.
Together, the speakers will open up a vital conversation on how we confront racialised wealth inequality, and what action is needed to build a fairer future.
Meet our speakers and chair
Dr Shabna Begum is CEO of the Runnymede Trust. She joined the Runnymede Trust in 2021 as a Senior Researcher and worked her way up to become Director of Research before taking on the Interim CEO position. Her work has been at the heart of all the Runnymede Trust’s recent projects, including our research on , the , the experiences of , and .
Esiri Bukata is a recent graduate from the MSc Inequalities and Social Science programme at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳. Her research explored racialised wealth inequality in the UK, with a particular focus on the experiences of first-generation African immigrants.
Dr Kojo Koram is a Reader in Law at Birkbeck School of Law, University of London. He joined Birkbeck in September 2018. Prior to taking up this role, he was a Lecturer at the School of Law at the University of Essex between 2016-2018. In 2022, he published his debut book Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, which was nominated for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
Mina Mahmoudzadeh is a Research Assistant at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ International Inequalities Institute and a PhD Candidate at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Department of Sociology where she is exploring the role of wealth and inheritance in class reproduction. She has an MSc in Inequalities and Social Science and a BSc in Physics. She worked as a policy analyst for 4 years in various government departments in the area of public health and health protection.
Mike Savage joined ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ in 2012 and retired from the Department of Sociology in 2024. He is now Professorial Research Fellow at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s International Inequalities Institute, from where he retains active collaboration with the Department of Sociology. Mike was Head of Department between 2013 and 2016. Between 2015 and 2020, he was Director of ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s International Inequalities Institute.
Faiza Shaheen is Distinguished Policy Fellow at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s International Inequalities Institute, and an economist, writer, and political commentator and activist. Faiza has over 15 years of experience researching the trends and consequences of inequality, as well as designing policies and campaigns to address the causes of inequality and exclusion. Her book, Know your place: How society sets us up to fail and what we can do about it was released in July 2023.
More about this event
The at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ brings together experts from many of the School's departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.
ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ events do not reflect the position or views of The London School of Economics and Political Science.
From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend checking back on this listing on the day of the event if you plan to attend.
Whilst we are hosting this listing, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Events does not take responsibility for the running and administration of this event. While we take responsible measures to ensure accurate information is given here this event is ultimately the responsibility of the organisation presenting the event.