Foreign Histories: Excavating our Past with Katie Goh and Paula Akpan

Katie Goh (Foreign Fruit) and Paula Akpan (When We Ruled) pull on personal and political threads to explore the idea of foreignness and weave new histories of resilience, survival, adaptation and rule that span centuries & continents.

Katie Goh is a writer and editor. Her award-nominated essays, journalism and criticism have appeared in publications including Port, the Guardian, Gutter, Wasafiri, i-D, Dazed and gal-dem, and she is an editor for Extra Teeth literary magazine. Her book of essays The End: Surviving the World Through Imagined Disasters was a Reviewer’s Choice for The Big Issue’s Independent Books of 2021 and shortlisted for the inaugural Kavya Prize in 2022. She grew up in the north of Ireland and lives in Edinburgh.

Paula Akpan is a journalist, historian and public speaker. A sociology graduate from the University of Nottingham, her work mainly focuses on blackness, queerness, social politics and our relationship with technology. She regularly writes for a variety of publications including Vogue, Teen Vogue, The Independent, Stylist, VICE, i-D, Bustle, Time Out London and more. Paula has also interviewed the likes of Oprah, Lupita Nyong'o, Reese Witherspoon, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Syd, Ray BLK and more. Graduating with a distinction in her Masters in Black British History, Paula has an interest in mapping out the lives and activism of Black lesbians and queer women in Britain between the 70s and 90s. Her debut, When We Ruled, published by Trapeze (2025), traces the lives and legacies of twelve African queens and warriors who contributed to the shaping of the continent.