Rather than a reading recommendation, this week I’d like to highlight the excellent About Race podcast from Reni Eddo-Lodge. 

Recorded in 2018, each of the nine episodes is sadly just as poignant today – featuring key voices from the last few decades of anti-racist activism, Reni looks at the recent history that lead to the politics of today. Her guests are wide-ranging, from then-Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott to actor Riz Ahmed.

Please have a listen to the podcast – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

For this week’s EDI Reading, I was particularly moved by Hashi Mohamed’s story, a successful Barrister and Broadcaster who has risen from being a desperate Kenyan child refugee to British barrister. I find Mohamed’s biography particularly inspiring in the knowledge that when he arrived in the UK he spoke basic English, attended low rated schools and was raised exclusively on state benefits in a deprived area of North West London. Mohamed has written a memoir on social mobility in Britain, in his book ‘People Like Us’ he provides advice from personal life experience about what it takes to ‘make it’ in Modern Britain. Mohamed campaigns for a kind of root-and-branch societal reform that will benefit everyone, not exclusively the brightest. 

There are several insightful interviews with Hashi Mohamed available online. I have chosen to share a HR Podcast from a presentation he gave in 2019 to Changeboard HR, part of the Future Talent Group.

From a People Services perspective, Mohamed’s insight working with HR Leaders highlighted to me that regardless of well-intentioned EDI HR initiatives and action plans, such as redacting equal opportunity information from CVs and providing interview panels with EDI training, that unless organisations have a clear set of widely recognised EDI values underpinning their business strategy, then efforts to instill EDI by way of recruitment protocol may in fact be artificial. 

Please have a listen to the podcast – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

This week’s EDI reading is recommended by Rike Bolam, and is Chaudhary, B. & Berhe, A. A. (2020): Ten simple rules for building an anti-racist lab.

Rike is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the School. Rike comments, “This preprint offers practical steps for tackling racism in STEM. The authors first talk about creating safe environments where everyone is heard and issues can be raised, and only then do they talk about hiring practices. I found this idea really interesting, as it highlights that building a diverse lab will only work in the long run if inclusion and retention are addressed first. It is a useful read for PIs and others who are committed to being anti-racist in the sciences.”

Please have a read – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

This week EDI Task Group member Helen Gray has chosen ‘How gender and race stereotypes impact the advancement of scholars in STEM: Professors’ biased evaluations of physics and biology post-doctoral candidates.’ Eaton et al (2019).  

Helen, a postdoctoral research associate within the Animal Sciences group, comments “We discussed this paper as part of our Animal Science journal club. It sparked thought-provoking conversations about unconscious bias and racism, as well as leading to discussion about the recruitment process in academia and the pros and cons of making names available on CVs and application forms. I really recommend introducing literature such as this into your research group.”

Please have a read and see what you think – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

School of Natural & Environmental Sciences are very proud to announce that Lauren Nelson, a 3rd year PhD student, has won the Newcastle University Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champion Student Award for her work in widening participation in STEM subjects.

Lauren is an active member of the Brilliant Club, a STEM ambassador, and led the organisation of Newcastle Chemistry’s first Global Women’s Breakfast Event.