Tag Archives: Diversity and Inclusion

The blog is evolving

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Last week Hilary and I travelled to Sheffield to collect SAGES Silver Athena SWAN award.  Thank you and congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible!

 

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With our Athena SWAN awards – Louise Jones, Hilary Geoghegan (SAGES) and Joanne Elliott (Chemistry)

This is, however, only one stage in the Athena SWAN ‘journey.’  This blog was established as part of the SAGES 2014-2015 Gender and Fieldwork Project, exploring Fieldwork, Gender and Careers.  Later Wellbeing was also added as a really important topic to explore further.  It is now time for the blog to evolve and be part of a new project.  This is therefore my last blog post, as the blog will now become part of a SAGES Disability and Inclusion Project led by Dr Ruth Evans:

The SAGES Disability and Inclusion project aims to raise awareness about disability and foster inclusive learning and working environments in SAGES. Ruth Evans, School Diversity and Inclusion representative, is currently consulting with key University staff and students about the focus of the project, including reviewing current support and facilities for students and exploring how to raise awareness of disability and mental health among staff. We have a particular focus on  ensuring that fieldwork is inclusive and are exploring staff training and capacity building and peer mentoring of students. We welcome any ideas or suggestions or examples of good practice as the project develops. Contact: r.evans@reading.ac.uk

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has supported this blog from the start, everyone who read the posts, has suggested ideas and forwarded comments, and on a personal level everyone who has encouraged me to start and then continue blogging.  Thank you!!!

Good luck to everyone with your research/studies/work/finding that work life balance, and look out for upcoming posts from the Diversity and Inclusion team……..

 

Professor Dame Athene Donald to present ‘Women Progressing, Progressing Women’

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The University is delighted to announce that Professor Dame Athene Donald DBE FRS, University of Cambridge, will present the first of a series of seminars focusing on Diversity and Inclusion on Tuesday 3 May.

Our new series of seminars will be presented by leading figures working for diversity and equality, both in the UK and internationally.

The lecture, Women Progressing, Progressing Women, will take place from 2pm until 3pm, at LT1 Chemistry Building, Whiteknights Campus.

Staff across the University are welcome to attend. After the seminar, refreshments will be available in the ground floor foyer of the Chemistry building. To help us plan the refreshments, please inform Frances Raimo if you wish to attend.

Using personal experience and a little well-placed science, Professor Donald will discuss how seemingly small culture changes and heightened self-awareness can have a profound effect on team morale and an individual’s ability to feel encouraged and supported.

Professor Donald is an eminent physicist, working particularly in soft matter physics. She is Professor of Experimental Physics and Master of Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, and amongst her many scientific accolades, was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999.

She has long been an outspoken champion of women in science, chairing the national Athena Forum from 2009–13, this an organisation which aims to provide a strategic oversight of developments that seek to, or have proven to, advance the career progression and representation of women in science, technology, mathematics, and medicine (STEM) in UK higher education.

Currently she is a member of the BIS Diversity group and the Gender Balance Working Group of the ERC.  From 2006–14 she was Director of WiSETI, Cambridge University’s Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative, and she was the University’s first Gender Equality Champion from 2010–14. She regularly writes on the topic of women in science in both mainstream media and on her personal blog.  (We have highlighted many of Athene’s blog posts here!)

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