Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
It is really important to us that everyone can feel included and be successful, whatever your background, demographics, role or route into the university. We believe that having a diverse, inclusive department is better for everyone.
We are several people who are working to making the department for health and community sciences an inclusive and diverse community, and who are committed to creating change so that inequalities are addressed: in education, at work, and through research.
Co-directors for equality, diversity and inclusion are Alison Pearson and Kristin Liabo. Early career researchers lead is Liz Shaw. Becky Whear is the department lead for health and wellbeing. Other members of the committee are: Amad Al-Azzawi, Jenny Lloyd, Shokraneh Oftadeh Moghadam and Tanimola Martins. We welcome colleagues from professional services, education and research to join us in this work. If you are interested in being part of our growing group, please email Alison Pearson or Kristin Liabo.
Department initiatives relevant to EDI
Staff-focused initiatives:
- Mentoring – we are working on the ‘task and finish’ group at faculty level to find out what people need from a mentoring programme, and to improve access to mentoring
- Initiatives to support people with caring responsibilities- we have been working to raise awareness of the challenges faced by carers, and are providing input to the new faculty parent and carer leave policy
- Equality, diversity and inclusion is a regular item on the agenda for department meetings and department leadership meetings
- We are working on the staff induction programme, to ensure that new staff feel included from the start of their employment.
Events, learning and awareness raising
- International women’s day celebration of women in our department, especially women who have important but sometimes overlooked roles and contributions
- Journal clubs to celebrate and enhance learning about equality, diversity and inclusion topics, for example during LGBTQ+ month
- We are planning to run problem-based learning sessions on the practice of equality, diversity and inclusion. If you would like to suggest specific topics for this or express an interest please email Alison or Kristin, or write on our Padlet: https://padlet.com/apearson510/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-1apkb2awmwp8hvf9
