Activist researcher: Momo Amjad on inclusion and privilege

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When Momo Amjad was named Young Researcher of the Year at the MRS Research Live 2018 awards, it was, to a large degree, because of her diversity work, and her desire to make market research a career open, and of interest to, people from all walks of life.

As a market researcher and activist, Amjad has been immersed in inclusion for some time, but admits that she is still learning. Recently, she had her own privileges checked while reading an article about disability inclusion.

“I read about how disability rights were not about accessibility,” Amjad explains. “I was very shocked – every disability campaign I’ve seen has been about physical accessibility. But this article argued that it’s not about being able to get into the room, it’s about what then happens in the room. I’ve been working on diversity for years, but it was a wonderful moment for me when I realised I have more to learn as well.”

Understanding the issues, scrutinising assumptions and never resting on our laurels are essential as we – as individuals, employees, bosses and business owners – move to a more inclusive future.

In love with research 

Amjad’s background means she has a better understanding than many of the barriers that can prevent access. “My family are fundamentalist religious and, when I was 17 years old, they told me I could either do a law degree or get married to my cousin,” she says. “I ended up doing almost three law degrees to buy myself time and figure out how I could get out of that situation.”

It was through marrying someone – “as a way of trying to protect my rights” – who worked at strategic insight consultancy Flamingo that she came to market research. After taking up an internship at Flamingo-owned Kiosk, she left the bar.

“I arrived at the Kiosk offices and completely fell in love with the research industry – they offered me a job within about a month of my internship. That was really validating; I not only enjoyed the work, but I was good at it too.

“That was my entry to the industry. Lots of people think it’s a bit of a sad story, but I find it really empowering – I was able to come back from it and have these opportunities.”

Diversity project 

When Kiosk closed, Amjad moved to Bamm and her inclusion work really took off. She led the Diversity research project, in collaboration with the Diversity Taskforce, looking at why black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) youths don’t enter the creative industries. She helped develop a methodology to research this, training people from within the community to be the interviewers.

“We trained about six 18- to 20-year-olds to go back into their communities and interview five 12- to 18-year-olds each. One of the hypotheses was that young people, especially BAME ones, are not influenced by their families as much as generations before. We found the complete opposite; parents were very persuasive – there’s still the prestige job pushed onto young people. Also, a lot of teachers just weren’t aware of these [creative] industries. Information drives passion – you can’t be passionate about something that you don’t know about.”

Amjad says the research showed that young BAME people looked at the creative and market research industries and saw they were “full of white people”, and wondered if they would fit in. “That’s one of the reasons they discounted the creative industries from the outset.”

As a result, one of the project’s recommendations was for earlier intervention in schools.

“Their decision-making doesn’t cement itself until A level, so there is a lot of scope for intervention up until that point. It’s not about glamorising it, but about showing other people of colour in that industry,” says Amjad.

Marginalised people 

As well as exploring inclusion for the industry, she set up Bamm’s Panorama internship, aimed at helping people from refugee backgrounds come into the industry. Amjad was keen to broaden the company’s internship opportunities so they weren’t just going to people who already knew someone in the agency.

“I thought it would be interesting to offer internships to more marginalised people – people of colour, or from poverty-stricken backgrounds,” she says.

Amjad then came across Breaking Barriers, which helps refugees find employment, and worked with the charity to give people on its books the right skills and the opportunity to do a three-month internship.

So, what has helped Amjad most in her career? “Trust – having my team members and senior team members trust me. For example, Bamm had never done lay ethnography before and there were lots of concerns about it. It ended up working wonderfully because someone trusted me enough to say go ahead and do it,” she explains.

“I find it really challenging, as a person of colour, to wait around for the more privileged to give me opportunities, when I could be creating them myself. Knowing I’m in a place that allows me to do that unhindered is wonderful.”

Amjad is now embarking on a new phase of her career, having recently taken up the position of strategic researcher at The Future Laboratory.
In her new role, she is starting to formulate a research project to look at the future of diversity, and where it’s heading for the next generation of consumers. Currently at the recruitment stage, the project will involve talking to innovators and diversity experts – “not just diversity officers in their companies, but actively lobbying, or making some kind of push into the conversation in a more progressive way”.

Power of the story 

Amjad’s aim is to produce articles and blog posts about what the future of diversity looks like in different sectors. “Whether that’s what happens when you’re in the room, or the genderless office and what that could look like – how different organisations and companies are implementing this, and what Gen Z wants from diversity,” she adds.

While the diversity and inclusion conversation “feels very acceptable” for some people, Amjad believes others still need more persuasion. Clearly, she’ll be busy working on the latter group – and now has an award under her belt. How did she feel when she won?

“I was very shocked. I wasn’t expecting it. I was very truthful in my application about my experiences and was nervous about adding those personal details.

“I was having more conversations with our diversity lay ethnographers and – seeing those results come back in – I saw the power of the story I was trying to tell.

“For them to see that I’d experienced these things and still have the outcome that I wanted, was very valuable for them. Winning the award was incredibly validating.

“Obviously, as a person of colour, it can be really hard to find acceptance in predominantly white spaces – especially if you’re Muslim, an activist or a troublemaker.”

This article was first published in Issue 25 of Impact.