NEW DATE: Wednesday 21st October 2020

LGBT+ in higher education: Building networks, making change

Please join STEM Equals and CILIA-LGBTQI+ for an afternoon focused on LGBT+ people in higher education. How can we build stronger networks? How can we create more inclusive research/working communities in which people feel like they can bring their whole selves to their research and their work (continuing discussions from the 2019 article in The GIST What does it mean to be seen?). To paraphrase a focus group participant for the STEM Equals project: We cannot take our identities off like a jacket and leave it by the door when we come to work in our offices or our labs or our classrooms (and we shouldn’t feel like we have to). The event will conclude with a launch of the University of Strathclyde LGBT+ staff and PhD student network.

When: Wednesday 21st October 2020 from 1:00pm-4:00pm

1:00pm: A free light lunch will be served

1:30pm: Welcome and introduction

1:45pm-2:15pm: Keynote

2:15pm-3:30pm: Panel discussion and Q&A

3:30pm: Launching the University of Strathclyde LGBT+ staff and PhD student network

Where: Technology & Innovation Centre (TIC) at the University of Strahtclyde, 99 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1RD

Free event; Spaces limited; Registration required

Welcome by Professor Yvette Taylor, School of Education, University of Strathclyde

Keynote Speaker: Dr Izzy Jayasinghe, Lecturer & UKRI Future Leader Fellow, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds

About Dr Jayasinghe: I am a UKRI Future Leader Fellow specialising in biophysics and biophotonics. My early training was as biomedical researcher, attaining my BSc and PhD at the University of Auckland (New Zealand). Since then, I have worked in the Universities of Queensland (Australia) and Exeter as a postdoc. In 2015, I was appointed as a lecturer in the University of Leeds where I have developed and refined new microscopy methods to visualise the molecular-scale features of cells which make up our vital organs. Aside from my day-to-day research and teaching work, I spend most of my time focusing on ways to improve Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) in universities though structures such as Athena SWAN and TIGERinSTEMM. My mission is to improve the career advancement, acceptance and fairness for women and gender minorities in STEMM at the intersections of LGBTQ+ identities, racial minorities and disability. To this end, I take a non-violent approach to raising awareness, tackling misinformation, improving inclusivity and improving the visibility of women and minorities in our workplaces. My ambition is to see universities in the UK become supportive spaces for marginalised groups, safe from hate speech, bullying, discrimination and harassment.

Panellists:

Dr Izzy Jayasinghe, UKRI Future Leader Fellow, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds

Dr Katie Nicoll Baines, School of Chemistry, co-chair, Staff Pride Network, University of Edinburgh

Dr Matson Lawrence, School of Education, University of Strathclyde

Dr Marco Reggiani, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Strathclyde

Professor Yvette Taylor, School of Education, University of Strathclyde

Jack Hao Yang, Physics Department, University of Strathclyde

Panel Facilitator: Dr Jessica Gagnon, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Strathclyde

Access: There is level access into the building, lifts available, and accessible, gender-neutral toilets. Please find additional details about the accessibility of the venue online. Please email STEMEquals@strath.ac.uk to discuss your specific access requirements by Friday 25th September 2020.

Transportation: Details about how to get to the event venue by bike, bus, rail, or car are available online. Please note, dedicated parking is not available for this event.

Childcare: For those who require childcare during the event, please email STEMEquals@strath.ac.uk by Friday 25th September 2020.

About STEM Equals: The STEM Equals project is a four year research and impact project focused on women and LGBT+ people in STEM in both academia and in industry. Through an intersectional lens, the project focuses on working cultures within higher education and industry, including better understanding the experiences of and addressing systemic inequalities faced by women and LGBT staff in STEM disciplines. The project industry partner is BAM Nuttall and the project is funded by EPSRC under the Inclusion Matters initiative, with matched funding from the University of Strathclyde. On Twitter: @STEMEquals Website: www.stemequals.ac.uk

About CILIA-LGBTQI+: 'Comparing Intersectional Lifecourse Inequalities among LGBTQI+ Citizens in Four European Countries’ (CILIA-LGBTQI+): Bringing together an international team of researchers, this 3 year EU-Norface funded project investigates the inequalities experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people across the lifecourse. The key objective is to provide cross-cultural evidence concerning life course inequalities experienced by LGBTQI+ people, comparing and contrasting across four European countries with different yet interrelated social, historical, economic and political backgrounds: England, Germany, Portugal and Scotland. The project also examines how inequalities related to gender and / or sexuality vary and intersect with others, such as social class, ethnicity, citizenship status, and so on. Twitter: @LGBTQILives Website: https://lgbtqilives.wordpress.com/