Aileen Lees

Sep 23, 2024 | bellacaledonia.org.uk | Aileen Lees

September is East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month in the UK — a celebration of ESEA cultures, our histories and our futures. It was launched in 2020 by besea.n (Britain’s East and Southeast Asian Network) in response to the connections formed between ESEA communities during lockdown. It was an isolating time for many of us, exacerbated by widespread anti-ESEA hate and racist media coverage.

Sep 9, 2024 | shado-mag.com | Aileen Lees

has become so demonised that it is now synonymous with junk: that which is unwanted, that lacks substance. But the canned meat holds so much more emotionally, culturally and historically. And it’s not just the food itself that suffers – the stigma around                 is symptomatic of the colonial, classist and often racist attitudes that pervade the food and wellness industries.

Aug 22, 2024 | shado-mag.com | Aileen Lees

Spam has become so demonised that it is now synonymous with junk: that which is unwanted, that lacks substance. But the canned meat holds so much more emotionally, culturally and historically. And it’s not just the food itself that suffers – the stigma around Spam is symptomatic of the colonial, classist and often racist attitudes that pervade the food and wellness industries.

Jun 7, 2024 | bellacaledonia.org.uk | Aileen Lees

In January, the government supported recommendations for museums to “recontextualise” their collections to include chattel slavery and colonialism. Yet with two major cultural openings in Tayside this year — the new Perth Museum and the Kimono exhibition at the V&A Dundee — both have failed to change the white-centric narrative that dominates these sectors. Spanning two floors, Perth Museum appears to give a comprehensive retelling of local history.

May 14, 2024 | thecourier.co.uk | Aileen Lees |Emma Crichton

There’s an adage along the lines of “the majority of arguments happen because of communication breakdown”. It’s usually meant about relationships between partners, but it can also apply to your employer. And to your college. Following UHI Perth’s plans to close its nursery and axe up to 70 jobs, more details of the cuts were made public last week — and the way the college is acting is abysmal. First, it promised that the nursery would stay open until at least 2025.