The ASPoN Forum is a national network for British Psychology departments who are engaged with the Athena Swan Charter and committed to advancing the careers of women and addressing gender imbalances. Further details about its Terms of Reference can be found at https://asponforum.wordpress.com/about-us/

This will be our fourth meeting, following three successful workshops in Royal Holloway (2015), University College London (2016) and Queen’s University Belfast (2018). We are meeting at UCL again on Thursday, 7 November 2019.

The workshop will be held in Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, University College London. Attendance is free of charge and all are welcome, but advance registration is required. To register, please use the link on this page.

The aims of this workshop are to:

(i) Provide an up-to-date briefing to attendees on the Athena SWAN process by a representative from the Athena SWAN team at Advance HE, Tamara Szucs

(ii) Discuss relevant topics such as gender disparity in psychology and career transition of women that can be used to inform the work of departmental SWAN SATs. There will be a separate discussion group led by Dan Mirman (Edinburgh) on 'Mentoring across career stages'.

Abstract: Formal mentoring generally focuses on research and often ends after completion of PhD and post-doctoral training, but independent researchers would still benefit from mentorship and professional development requires more than just research expertise. Additional mentorship often happens informally, which may exacerbate gender imbalances as a result of differences in access to mentors. Implementing more structured mentoring programs for early-stage and mid-career staff would enhance their success and promote equality of opportunity across career stages, including progression into leadership roles. The goal of this discussion is to share approaches to professional development mentoring for postgraduate, fixed-term contract, and early-career staff. We will focus on successes and challenges, including how to match mentees with mentors, how much (or what kind of) structure works best, and how to encourage effective participation/uptake.

For the Q&A session with Tamara Szucs, we ask that you email your questions by Monday, 4 November to k.szendroi@ucl.ac.uk

(iii) Provide a dissemination opportunity for department representatives to brief workshop attendees on any initiatives they have been conducting within their own departments. If you would like to give a 5-10 minute presentation at the workshop in which you describe some work being done within your department, please contact Kriszta E. Szendroi k.szendroi@ucl.ac.uk.

Programme

10.05-10:15 Opening remarks

10:15-11:00 Ioana Latu (Queen's U. Belfast): The Psychology of Gender in Understanding Gender Equality Initiatives

11-11:30 coffee

11.30-12.30 Tamara Szucs (Athena SWAN Programme Adviser): Preparing an Athena SWAN application

12:30-1.15 Lunch

1.15-2.30 Small group discussions, Q & A session with Tamara Szucs

2.30-3.00 Feedback from small group discussions, general discussion

3.00-3:30 coffee

3:30-4.00 Short presentations from any departments about their initiatives

4.00-4.15 Wrap up

ASPON Forum Fourth Workshop