This year’s Raymond Williams lecture was delivered by Open University graduate and honorary graduate Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton.
After being made homeless at 15, Sabrina battled prejudice and preconceptions working to become a firefighter three years later. She then went on to study for a degree with The Open University, before earning her doctorate at Cardiff University.
As Chief Fire Officer at West Sussex Fire and Rescue, she is now one of the most senior firefighters in the UK, as well as being a psychologist and author of several books.
Speaking at Cardiff’s Norwegian Church, Sabrina explored how poverty impacts health and wellbeing, how preconceptions can determine many people’s futures, and how education can become an anti-poverty tool. Drawing on her own experience on the life-changing effect of learning, Sabrina credited the work of The Open University, Cardiff University, and the Big Issue, the magazine she once sold in Newport, and for which she is now an ambassador.
The lecture is an annual event to reflect on the life of Raymond Williams, one of Wales’ and Europe’s greatest social thinkers. It is organised by Learning and Work Institute, and supported by The Open University in Wales.
After her talk, Sabrina was joined by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Vikki Howells MS for a question-and-answer session.
The Minister said:
“It was a privilege to join this year’s Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture. Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton’s remarkable journey from homelessness in Newport to Chief Fire Officer powerfully illustrates how education is a genuine pathway out of poverty. As Minister for Further and Higher Education, I’m committed to building an education system that reaches everyone, especially those facing the greatest challenges. Raymond Williams believed education creates hope – Dr Cohen-Hatton’s story proves why this matters”.
Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton said:
“Raymond Williams believed that education can be a tool for helping people out of poverty, which is something I can attest to. One of the biggest challenges is how others perceive us, and how we perceive ourselves. We will often tell ourselves that we can’t do it, which is why it’s so vital that we continue to remove invisible barriers which prevent people from reaching their potential.”
