Author: Lorraine Slater

Win a fully funded place at Cumberland Lodge’s ‘Life Beyond the PhD’ conference

Posted on by Lorraine Slater

Life Beyond the PhD: Monday 16th – Friday 20th August 2021

Are you a late-stage doctoral student at the University of Brighton? Would you like to win a fully-funded place to attend Cumberland Lodge’s ‘Life Beyond the PhD’ conference this August?

‘Life Beyond the PhD’ is an annual conference designed to help doctoral students from any discipline prepare for their future. Now in its 13th year, the conference is run by Cumberland Lodge, an educational charity with a superb residential conference centre in the south east of England. The conference offers PhD students and early career researchers from across the UK the opportunity to take part in invaluable training in communication, public engagement, and interdisciplinary working, while also being encouraged to think about the impact of their research within its wider social context.

Brighton Doctoral College is pleased to offer one fully funded conference place for a late-stage University of Brighton doctoral student. The winning applicant will have their registration fee paid, be given single occupancy accommodation at Cumberland Lodge where all meals will be provided, and have reasonable travel expenses from within the UK to the venue reimbursed. This is a fantastic opportunity for a doctoral student to reflect on their career direction, acquire valuable career development skills, network and exchange ideas in an inspiring venue.

Find out more on the Cumberland Lodge website

To be eligible to apply, students must:

  • still be registered as a doctoral student when the conference takes place
  • agree to provide the Doctoral College with a short blog post following the conference

Closing date for applications: 12pm (midday), Thursday 22 July, 2021

To apply, please submit a short statement of up to 300 words describing your ambitions beyond your PhD and what you would hope to gain from attending the conference. The key criterion for the assessment of applications will be the demonstration of the candidate’s ability to benefit from the conference. Please email your statement as a Word or PDF attachment to Lorraine Slater at L.Slater@brighton.ac.uk with the email subject title ‘Cumberland Lodge: [your surname]’. Please include in your attachment your full name, student number, school and the expected date of the submission of your thesis.

See also:

Blog post from our 2018 winner, Tochukwu Ozulumba

Blog post from our 2016 winner, Uschi Klein

Race terminology survey

Posted on by Lorraine Slater

Race terminology survey: A message from Professor Tara Dean, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise)

Staff and students who self-identify as belonging to a community currently designated by the term Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic are invited to complete this survey by 23 July 2021.

Prof Tara Dean
Professor Tara Dean, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise)

As part of our ongoing commitment to anti-racism, we are examining the language and terminology we use.

The term BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) has been a common feature of conversations on race and ethnicity in public and institutional life in the UK over recent years: from politics to media, and from education to sport. However, the appropriateness and value of the term BAME has been called into question increasingly by some members of the “BAME community” themselves. Critiques variously note that the term: homogenises diverse groups of people and their identities and experiences; excludes as much as it includes; is dehumanising through reduction to an acronym or label; and has been co-opted by white elites for the purposes of “diversity management”.

The University of Brighton is keen to be part of this conversation. We recognise the contested nature of the term BAME and wish to hear from colleagues and students about their ideas for a better and more inclusive approach.

The survey consists of five questions and should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete and the deadline for completion is Friday 23 July.

Survey link button

I have been leading the university-wide working group on race terminology, so if you have any queries in relation to this survey, please do contact me by email on Tara.Dean@brighton.ac.uk.

Thank you in advance for your contribution.

Best wishes,

Professor Tara Dean
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise)

 

BLM webinars in HE

Posted on by Lorraine Slater

This page aims to list webinars and online events taking place at and outside of Brighton which address racism in Higher Education and related issues. It does not claim to be a comprehensive list but rather is a list of events we are aware of which may be of interest to students and staff. If you know of an event not listed here, please pop details in the comments or email DoctoralWorkshops@brighton.ac.uk.

Once sessions have taken place, we’ll add event recordings and resources where available.

SASS Social Science Forum Semester 1

Decolonising the curriculum/decolonising research

Every alternate Weds at 13-14hr in Semester 1 from 14 October

BSU Black History Month

October 2020

Black History Month graphicA MONTH DEDICATED TO CELEBRATING THE CULTURE, ORIGINS, HISTORIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF AFRICAN AND CARIBBEAN COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT HISTORY.

Brighton Students Union are hosting a range of incredible virtual events and experiences throughout October. All students are welcome to get involved and engage with as many events as possible. Check out the schedule of events!

Symbolic Protest: the case of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter | Online talk

22 September, 18.00-19.30

A free webinar hosted by Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, and open to all. Join doctoral researcher Ashley Cole (Birmingham City University) for a discussion of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and recent protests.

Recently, the hashtag (#) BlackLivesMatter has resurfaced sparking protest worldwide after the death of George Floyd. What emerged as a protest, a movement and an organisation is now a symbol for protesting racial equality. This talk will dive deeper into the historical aspects of Black social movements and the significance of a slogan.

Decolonising the curriculum: an inter-institutional discussion between University of Brighton and University of Lincoln

17 July, 13.00-14.30

This webinar offers staff and students the opportunity to reflect on practice and experience and to showcase initiatives that are making a concerted effort to Decolonising the Curriculum. Led by Dr Marlon Moncrieffe from the University of Brighton and facilitated by Professor Ananda Breed from the University of Lincoln, this initiative will provide a cross University approach to explore how colleagues might consider the design and development of curriculum in relation to issues concerning power, access, representation and advocacy.

The webinar will consist of a presentation by Dr Moncrieffe in relation to the University-wide ‘Decolonising the Curriculum’ initiative that he has led at the University of Brighton, followed by break out room discussions.

Turning Words into Actions: Eliminating racism and racial inequality in HE

Universities UK
14 July, 15.30-16.30

Session recording and transcript.

Dialogue and Debate: Black Lives Matter

Cumberland Lodge
A 4-part miniseries on issues of race and justice in policing, education, the culture sector and wider society

Black Lives Matter: Taking action to tackle racism across HE

Wonkhe
8 July 2020

A recording of the event, slides and resources can be found on the Wonkhe blog.

Call for BLM Project Proposals July 2020

Posted on by Lorraine Slater

This call has now closed. Judges selected two winning projects in late July and the Doctoral College increased the award money to £600 to be shared by both teams. You can read about the winners along with some of the BLM-related activities of a number of our students in the Summer 2020 Research and Enterprise newsletter. Thanks to everyone who submitted to the call. We will be continuing to support student-led projects in this area and will bring you details of that later in the year.


Flyer with Black Lives matter logo and brief proposal call details

Black Lives Matter: Call for Project Proposals

Deadline for submission Thursday 23rd July 2020, 5pm

In solidarity with the current Black Lives Matter movement, the Doctoral College in collaboration with Doctoral Researchers Representatives are allocating the Prof David Arnold Fund for a small interdisciplinary project limited to £500. This project wishes to complement other university initiatives engaged in decolonising the University of Brighton (in the broadest sense) and challenging racial injustice (see Decolonising the curriculum and Race Equality Charter for some examples). The Prof David Arnold Fund was established in 2017 in memory of David, former Dean of the Doctoral College.

Doctoral Researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds are invited to work together on a small project running over an eight-week period, resulting in an output of their choosing. The collaborative output – whatever that may be! – will then be shared on the Doctoral College’s digital space. Perhaps you would like to collaborate on a literature review, analyse relevant news articles, critique policy, design a future study, make an art piece… Let your creativity flow! Challenges that your project responds to might include:

  • Challenging and deconstructing anti-black racism
  • Decolonising the curriculum and academic spaces
  • Celebrating Black academics and academics of colour in academia; thinkers, activists or scientists
  • Black Lives Matter student engagement
  • Institutional Racism, what it looks like in the UK, and how can we make changes

We are looking for a simple project pitch of no more than 500 words (see below for suggested proposal headings). All ideas will be considered. No breakdown of costs will be required; however we ask that all projects do not require ethics approval and involve a minimum of 3 postgraduate students from different disciplinary areas.

The selection committee will consist of PGR student reps and members of the Doctoral College.  We will be giving special consideration to projects involving Black and other researchers of colour. Please email your proposal as an attachment to DoctoralCollege@brighton.ac.uk by 5pm on Thursday 23rd of July.

The winning project will be awarded £500. The money can be used for equipment and/or be spread among contributors. No additional funds will be allocated for the project. Any questions, please contact Lorraine Slater (L.Slater@brighton.ac.uk).

Suggested proposal headings – you can use bullet points

Title

Details of contributors: (Name, email, school)

Abstract or Summary [120 words max]

Aims and objectives

What are you going to do? (Methodology and Method)

What do you hope to achieve? (Intended outcomes)

Tasks and timescales (Rough Project plan)

Page updated 13 August 2020

Black Lives Matter

Posted on by Lorraine Slater

The murder of George Floyd in May has shone a spotlight on the deeply entrenched racism in our society and brought into focus how Black people are often at the sharp end of this. The ensuing surge in the Black Lives Matter movement has sparked long overdue conversations and is fuelling a wave of activities aimed at bringing about urgent, meaningful and enduring change. 

Brighton Doctoral College stands in solidarity with the Black community. We are committed to working with our students and colleagues to help overcome racial inequalities and injustices in Higher Education. We believe it is imperative that the voices of those with lived experience are heard so they can inform the work that must be undertaken to address both structural racism and the issues affecting Black people’s day-to-day lives. At the same time, we must ensure the burden of responsibility does not lie with Black people. We all have a duty to fix this. 

We’ve created this space on our blog to bring together voices, actions and resources, and to provide a platform that is open to ideas and development. Hosting a Black Lives Matter space on a blog set up to provide information relating to Covid-19 might seem odd to some. But Black, Asian and minority ethnic people have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, a fact highlighting how injustices and inequalities don’t come neatly packaged in separate boxes. Plus, of our various digital spaces, right now this blog is getting the most traffic and that’s useful for gaining visibility. 

Some of our Black students have already being doing a lot of work to help break down the barriers impeding the progress of Black students and to drive forward an anti-racism agenda. We particularly want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Naz Biggs and Esther Omotola Ayoola in the School of Applied Social Science for their labour both within and outside the University. We recognise that racism affects not only Black people and that racism affects different groups of people in different ways. We are learning that the term ‘BAME’ is often considered unhelpful. BAME homogenises experience and, by grouping together vastly differing experiences within a single category, BAME effectively means ‘non-white’ and is very othering. This blog space is to help tackle the specific issues affecting Black people – some of which, but not all, will also affect people of other racial and ethnic groups. 

We know that many Black people have experienced profound distress and pain following the murder of George Floyd and there is a deep need for healing. If you are seeking support, the university has a range of services available, including specialist counselling for PGRs which you can access via your SSGT. You can also access free support through the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network. 

We hope you’ll want to return to this area of the blog to contribute and to keep up to date with our plans and activities as they develop. If you want to contact us directly, please email DoctoralCollege@brighton.ac.uk. 

This is just the beginning and we have a long way to go. We want to move forward with optimism, compassion and openness, and good amount of fire in our bellies to help bring about meaningful change and a fairer, more equitable world.