Discovering Networks for Culture Change

ORGANISER: Early Career Women (ECW) Network

EVENT DESCRIPTION: This session will interactively take you through some of the techniques we have been implementing to effect the culture change necessary to address the STEM ‘diversity deficit’. It has been identified that certain culture changes such as increasing and encouraging diversity, are vital to achieving the goals of increasing access to HE, recruiting from the widest and most inclusive talent pool, offering the best personal development possible to all HEI staff and students and retaining the best staff by fixing the ‘leaky pipeline’.

However when attempting to tackle an issue so wide-spread and embedded that it requires a significant culture change, even the most dedicated, enthusiastic and thoughtful individuals cannot do so alone. It is imperative that it is supported by all members in a united and strategic fashion, from both the top down and ground up, with good communication between them.

In this session we will be sharing with you identified best practice, challenges and obstacles, including highlighting the importance of networks and collaboration. We will interactively demonstrate some of our key techniques used so far which are also being applied to the culture change around embedding public engagement in academic life which are applicable in many similar situations. By the end of the session, participants will review their networks under a more connected light to possibly conclude that these are bigger than they first realised.

EVENT FACILITATOR: Dr Jessica Spurrell is the School-University Partnership Officer (SUPO) at the University of Southampton, sitting between the Outreach, Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu) and Southampton Education School teams, co-ordinating and supporting the university's engagement and outreach encounters with schools.

Previously to this she managed Talk to US!, Southampton’s School-University Partnership Initiative (SUPI), one of 12 national SUPIs funded by UKRI and co-ordinated by the National Co-ordination Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), while completing her PhD in Cryogenic Engineering. She is a co-founder of Bright Club Southampton, a STEM Ambassador and has given over 40 public engagement and outreach talks, workshops and demonstrations including at Winchester and Brighton Science Festivals, the Big Bang Birmingham, BBC Stargazing Live Portsmouth, Touch Storytelling Network and Skeptics and Café Scientifique groups in Edinburgh, London and all over the South of England.

She is a member of Southampton’s WiSET+ (Women in Science, Engineering, Technology and more) staff network steering group, a proud and active supporter of Ada Lovelace Day, National Women in Engineering Day and International Women’s day and curator of a celebratory blog shouting out about unsung heroes, www.femmesavecfaim.blogspot.co.uk

Lunch is provided.