EDI monthly meeting – 12th October

The committee met again on 12th October after a short summer break. We had lots to catch up on, and our conversation focussed on organising the staff culture survey, which we hope to be available in November. Staff members will be informed when the survey is available. We also discussed the potential of having undergraduate student representation on the committee, to promote inclusivity across the university.

With the start of a new academic year, we also have several member changes. I, as the postgraduate representative, will be stepping down from my role. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the group for the past few years, but as my PhD comes to an end, it felt time to step down and allow a new student the opportunity to be involved in the EDI committee.

We also have a change in EDI committee chair. Jenny Dunn will be stepping down from her role, although she remains as a member of the committee. She says “I have very much enjoyed the challenge of broadening the remit of the Athena Swan committee to begin to encompass multiple facets of diversity within SLES, over the past couple of years. I’m proud of the achievements the new EDI committee have made during this time – re-establishing the Staff Culture Survey, developing the new Student Culture survey, introducing our mentoring scheme, and not least re-gaining our Bronze Athena Swan departmental award, to name a few. I look forward to staying involved with the EDI committee under Iain’s leadership, and I am certain he will do a fantastic job of taking the committee forward!”

And with that, we welcome Iain Stott into the role as EDI chair. He says “I am really looking forward to taking on the lead role for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. 

 Being a gay/queer person working in academia, EDI is something that has been very important to me since early in my career. The classic, basic problem of lacking role models like myself meant I found it difficult to visualise and navigate unique challenges within and outside of work, as part of a career and life outside heteronormativity. Conversely, my considerable privileges as cisgender, mostly male-presenting, white and Northern European became more apparent, as did the need for people with less privilege to have opportunities, a voice and agency over their careers and lives.

 I’ve now worked in EDI for a long time in various spheres and particularly within LGBTQ+ spaces. I’ve met a huge diversity of wonderful people, learned a great deal, and I hope imparted some wisdom of my own. There are a great deal of systemic issues for universities and academia to solve and yet identify, but I hope at least that we’re getting to the point where the basic issues of role models, awareness and agency are beginning to change.

 Jenny did a fantastic job revitalising the SLES EDI committee and spearheading the successful Athena SWAN bronze application we were awarded earlier in the year. I’m very grateful to be taking over at a time where there is a clear path forward. I hope that I, alongside all other staff and students working within EDI, can help SLES and the university grow as a yet more diverse, inclusive and welcoming place to be.”

Thank you for your hard work and dedication Jenny – you will be missed – and welcome Iain! We are excited to see the innovation and perspective you bring and the direction you take the committee in moving forward.

Introduction of coaching scheme

The EDI committee is very excited to announce the formation of a coaching scheme within the School of Life and Environmental Sciences! After the formation of a coaching subgroup several months ago, the scheme is now fully up and running for students to use.

The scheme is aimed at pairing a volunteer coach (staff member) with a postgraduate student, with the specific aim of providing support over agreed issues or areas of uncertainty. This can take many forms, from speaking about job applications to gaining advice about how to become a more independent researcher!

The scheme provides lots of flexibility, with students able to request a certain member of staff from the designated list, before meeting at regular intervals at the discretion of both parties. Simple assessment forms are filled out at the first and last sessions to track progress.

The EDI committee is really excited about this scheme and hopes it will provide a further avenue of support for students who feel they need it, as well as hopefully improve the sense of community within the department!

The coaching scheme handbook is attached for those who require further information.

Meeting – 17 January 2022

Athena Swan Gender Charter logo
Athen Swan logo

Our Athena Swan bronze application was submitted to Advance HE last week, so the committee attention naturally turned to tackling the detailed Action Plan which is core to the application. The various subgroups (culture survey, mentoring, and data) will be now meeting independently to discuss how to map progress against, and achieve the Action Plan.

Iain informed the committee that he attended a workshop organised by the Racial and Ethnic Equality and Diversity (REED) Ecological Network of the British Ecological Society on decolonising the curriculum at their annual meeting in December 2021. Progress on this will follow also from the recent consultation the University is running on this, and more generally on our teaching and learning strategy.

Jenny and Iain also met the EDI representative of the Department of Geography, Dr Dilkushi de Alwis Pitts. Following the merger of the Schools of Life Sciences and Geography, a new School of Life and Environmental Sciences has been created. To streamline work between our newly formed Departments of Life Sciences and Geography, Dilkushi will shortly be joining our committee, and a call will be open for other members of the Dept of Geography to join us.

We plan to reflect this on our blog soon, as well as invite any colleague or student from Geography

to write for our Spotlight series.

Spotlight – Dr Jonathan Hughes

Jonathan Hughes with a dinosaur skull
Jonathan Hughes in the lab

My current role is as the technician with responsibility for those practical classes that fall under ecology and zoology, although my background is in molecular biology so I’m often involved in molecular biology and microbiology sessions as well.

I completed my PhD looking at how to improve crop water use efficiency via modulation of the number of stomatal pores in the epidermis of barley, at the department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at Sheffield University. This was followed by a brief stint as a secondary school teacher before I joined the University of Lincoln in my current role in 2018.

I decided to become a technician as I really enjoy the hands-on aspects of science and I was also seeking a career with a more favourable work-life balance after being a teacher.

My current role is great as it’s very varied in terms of the different practical classes we offer here. Also, the Ecology and Conservation practical classes provide me with many opportunities to work outdoors which I really enjoy, even if the weather is often uncooperative!

Meeting – 21 September 2021

At our meeting this month we welcomed a new member, Dr Jonathan Hughes, representing the technical team on the committee. One of the first items for discussion was the Athena Swan application. Following a delay in our original submission, the application is now with the Eleanor Glanville Centre team for comments and feedback. We expect to revise our application and submit it by the end of November 2021.

The next item on our agenda was “Decolonising the curriculum”. Work on this topic has started at the university level but we have been asked to consider the implications for our teaching strategy, relevant policies as well as equality, diversity and inclusion at the School level. Iain Stott, Carol Rea and Graziella Iossa will represent the EDI committee on a school-wide working group including programme leaders and members of the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Committee. The first actions of the working group will include a statement of intent, identifying a champion to take this work forward, and preparing a presentation for the School meeting in October.

There were a few changes in committee membership. Alex Aitken and Paul Eady stepped down and the committee would like to thank them both for their hard work, especially for running the culture survey and establishing a coaching scheme. Meanwhile Ambrose Tinarwo and Mat Goddard joined the mentoring subgroup, and Oliver Burman joined the culture survey subgroup.

Meeting – 13 July 2021

The committee met today and the main point of discussion on the agenda was the topic of decolonising the curriculum. As equality, diversity and inclusion committee we have been asked by our Head of School to consider this topic alongside the wider work that is happening at the College and university-wide level. From September 2021, the university-wide Decolonisation of the Curriculum Oversight Group will be reorganised into a Working Group consisting of champions appointed by each school, which will be responsible for advancing work on decolonisation of the curriculum, and a Steering Committee, which will provide strategic leadership to the project.

While this work is developing, and recognising the need to take action now in time for the beginning of next academic term, we are going to start by raising awareness and sharing best-practice examples of decolonisation of the curriculum at our next school meeting in September. As always, we will share our progress on this blog in future posts.

Meeting – 23 June 2021

Our meeting this month focused on the delay to our application for the Athena Swan submission. After discussions within our committee, last month we decided that we would rather delay our submission until later in the year. This was a set back on our ambition and target date, however all the work put in by the committee to complete the application will still be valid for our revised application for the new submission date.

Meanwhile, the committee also considered an important report that was kindly shared with us by the Plant and Animal Sciences Department of the University of Sheffield. The report considers the topic of decolonising the curriculum. There is other ongoing work across the University of Lincoln taking into account this important topic, and as a committee, we will highlight best practice to share with the rest of the School of Life Sciences before the teaching resumes in the autumn term.

Spotlight – Emily Green

A picture of Emily Green
Emily Green at work

I’m a PhD student in the School of Life Sciences, studying Palaeontology, more specifically the evolution of complexity. I started my palaeo career at the University of Bristol, completing an integrated masters in Palaeobiology. I have been involved in a number of projects tackling a wide range of paleontological questions, from the position of ctenophores in the tree of life, to 3D reconstructions of modern life’s closes cousins, Ediacarans. My favourite project so far has been a study of fossilised poo from the Triassic, which we used to create a food web for a 205-million-year-old ecosystem!

One of my favourite parts of Palaeontology is how varied it is. As a discipline, it utilises any methods it can get its hands, from geology to chemistry, and so each new question can lead you down so many different paths when trying to answer it! Palaeontology always fascinated me as a child, mainly because it seemed as close as one could get to studying real-life dragons. It combines both science and a bit of imagination to picture and understand all these distant bygone lands, that all satisfyingly operate under unifying biological principles.

I have loved furthering my studies at Lincoln, especially with the support of my wonderful supervisors, being so welcoming and helpful!

There is a great community of post-grad students, always up for a weekly coffee break and chat, which has been lovely during the pandemic…

I never have a good answer to “What is your favourite dinosaur?”, a response which I feel I should have locked and loaded, ready to answer any 7-year-old that asks. I prefer a good mammoth…..

Meeting – 4 March 2021

As with our last meeting, this month the committee focused, for the large part, on going through our draft application for the upcoming Athena Swan school-level submission. With the internal submission deadline for application approaching, we revised the draft text and Action Plan. A lot of work has been going behind the scenes to obtain the data needed for the application. The data encompass students (undergraduates and postgraduates), academic, technical and professional staff as well as applicants for our degrees and candidates for new positions.

During the meeting, we discussed a new draft policy on committee representation and composition which we will pass on for discussion and approval to the School Management Committee. This is to ensure that committee representation is reviewed regularly, reflects any changes in staff, and ensures principles of equality, diversity and inclusion are embedded in every committee.

Meeting – 8 February 2021

Athena Swan Gender Charter logo
Advanced HE Athen Swan Gender Charter logo

Our meeting this month was spent, for the large part, going through our draft application for the upcoming Athena Swan school-level submission. We learnt that, in a proactive move, Advanced Higher Education has moved the application deadline to the 28th May 2021 in recognition of the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the work of the Self-Assessment Team, in particular the closure of schools and the most recent lockdown of January 2021. In addition, the application will also feature a specific extension to the application word limit to consider the impact of Covid-19 on the application.

During the meeting, we identified a number of key challenges and actions which will inform our application.