Phil: I think the department is raising the profile of equality and diversity really well.
I think there’s a lot more visibility to it.
Ramatou: I have a voice you are giving me a voice, so that’s really nice.
Avril: If we look at the detail of the history of Geography in Britain, then we can see that
women have played a very significant role in it, particularly as it emerged as a professional
discipline within the universities from the late 1800s on.
Jen: I’m going to tell you about the course itself then offer a series of reflections.
Jessica: In the same way that we do research intensive teaching at this university, thinking
about how to do research intensive equality and diversity work.
Surindar: So my research about refugees’ living conditions is close to home in a personal
sense. Arooj: over half of the British Muslim population
that resides in the bottom 10% of local authority districts for deprivation.
Avril: I think it’s really important that within scholarship, research, within public
bodies of knowledge, that we bring different perspectives to different subjects.
Aude: If we have people from Africa and people from England, they don’t have to have the
same culture. So you mustn’t think for them/ You have first to as them which activities
do you go to, in order to bring them with the other people from the other country, and
I think in this way you will help them to be united together.
Grace: I am an equality and diversity champion. I think the main issue with E&D is the lack
of awareness of it, so obviously days like this are really good to improve awareness.
Jennifer: Flexible working is something that’s really important to both young male and female
academics, within increased caring responsibilities becoming shared, and not just for family,
but for some parents and even partners too. Catherine: I think raising student voices,
undergraduate and postgraduate voices will be important.
Surindar: Well this morning I’ve been very interested to meet local artists who are pulling
together research that is going on at the university and looking at it from a different
perspective. I’ve been thinking about how I might be able to work with them in the research
I’m doing at the moment. Shaheen: My name’s Shaheen Ahmed and I’m
a visual artist based in Balsall Heath, Birmingham. I work with paper and maps, and I was just
engaging with students and asking them where they are hoping to go and research[…] and
I think a lot of the academics, the majority of them are male, so it was looking at female
empowerment. Carl: And part of our process is to identify
leaders, community leaders who can help us with access to that community too. To engage
with them and then to begin to listen to what they have to say.
Sebastian: So this sort of issue about community trust and communication is actually really
critical, to have a successful outcome. Jennifer: I think that it is changing. The
proportion of female undergraduates in Geography and even Earth Sciences is about 50:50. But
I suppose historically quite a few of the senior roles have been filled by male academics,
and it traditionally has been quite difficult for women to go for promotion and be successful
in promotion. But I think it is changing, so I think it is an historical legacy of posts
being filled and very few posts being available. Una: I can see you’ve been able to pull
together academic credibility and insight into the kind of meaningful and worthiness
of what people are trying to do. I mean, we all accept the principle of equality and diversity,
we all know we want it to happen….so enjoy the rest of your day.