Dr Kendi Guantai on sense of belonging

The IABC EMENA Podcast

Have you been hearing the discussions around sense of belonging? Wondered about the actual definition or how it relates to our work as corporate business communicators? Dr Kendi Guantai takes us through some important concepts in this episode and also talks about authenticity. What do you think? Dr Kendi Guantai is an award-winning Communications and Marketing expert at the Leeds University Business School (LUBS), where she manages and teaches post-graduate courses in Corporate Communications and Public Relations. She also designs and delivers business related courses on the Goldman Sachs 10K Women’s Programme and sits on the advisory board of Archetypical, the company behind the simulation game ‘Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders’. Kendi is a Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE) Fellow, researching students’ intersectional lived experiences of authentic self and belonging during their studies, and the impact of these experiences on the student lifecycle. In addition to Sense of Belonging, her current research interests include Authentic Leadership and Public Sector Communications, and she is actively involved in Decolonising initiatives at the University of Leeds. Kendi is the Vice Chair of Leeds ACTS! (Academic Collaboration with the Third Sector) as well as the Chartered Association for Business School’s REAG (Race Equality Working Group). She is a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence (2019) as well as the faculty partnership award for Equality and Inclusion (2021). In 2020, she was recognised as a ‘Local Hero’ by the Leeds City Council for ‘outstanding and tireless services within the local community during the Covid-19 pandemic’.