EDI Calendar 2023-24
Last academic year we launched our first official Royal Holloway EDI Calendar, emerging from the work of our Inclusive Culture and Environment Strategy Group. After a review of last year, we are proud to present our EDI Calendar 2023-24.
This year the calendar comprises four core months which focus on different themes, and align with the campaigns run by your Students' Union. In each core month, cross-University events involving both colleagues and students will provide opportunities to engage with important discussions around equity and inclusion. Other dates will be recognised in internal and external University communications. Keep an eye on your weekly student newsletter, on social media @RHCampusLife, and the Royal Holloway App for updates!
We hope you will join us in participating in EDI events, to support the further development of our University's inclusive and supportive community. Our vision is for diversity confidence to become firmly rooted at the core of our institutional and individual practices, so that we are all able, and supported, to flourish at Royal Holloway.
EDI Events 2022-23
Below is an archive of past EDI events, for students to watch back whenever is suitable for them. All recordings have subtitles, and if you would like access to a transcript please email equality@rhul.ac.uk.
Trigger Warning: this discussion includes reference to sexual assault and mild swearing.
Winnie M Li is an author, activist, and winner of the Guardian’s ‘Not the Booker Prize’. Winnie discusses her first novel Dark Chapter, and writing about her experience of sexual assault as a way to process her trauma. She also discusses her second novel Complicit, which was released in summer 2022 and explores the ‘#Me Too Movement’, describing her own experiences of navigating misogyny, sexual behaviour and power structures whilst working in the film industry.
Organised by the Black and Global Majority Staff Network and EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.
I. Stephanie Boyce is the ex-President of the Law Society of England and Wales. She was the 177th President since the Law Society was formed in 1825, but most notably was only the sixth female and the first Black (and first person of colour) to hold the role. Stephanie discusses diversity, the ‘freedom to be me’, and being the change that we want to see.
Organised by the Black and Global Majority Staff Network and EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.
Caroline Harris, Department of English, and writer, publisher and educator, talks about what she has learned from the many authors and interviewees for her book M-Boldened: Menopause Conversations We All Need to Have. These range from global women’s health and human rights advocate Dr Padmini Murthy, to personal accounts of surgical menopause, including from #makemenopausematter’s Diane Danzebrink, of the importance of trusted information, of neglect in the criminal justice system, of menopause medicine and attitudes in Nigeria and rural Pakistan, and stories of the joys and possibilities of midlife.
Organised by Royal Holloway's Women's Network (RoWaN) and the EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.
An online panel discussion with representatives from Disabled Students UK, including discussion of the challenges faced by disabled students in UK higher education, the lived experiences of panellists with a range of disabilities, and best practice for disability inclusion.
Organised by the Disability and Mental Health Staff Network and EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.
This one-hour presentation explored the mental and emotional symptoms of menopause. Menopause is so much more than hot flushes and periods stopping, and for many the first symptoms of menopause are mental and emotional. This session is dedicated to these symptoms and how they can be managed.
Organised by the Menopause Network and EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.
A discussion about mental health with Cathy Reay and staff and student representatives from Royal Holloway. Cathy is a disabled queer writer and speaker, whose work chiefly focuses on the themes of disability justice, accessibility, single motherhood, sex and dating.
Organised by the Disability and Mental Health Staff Network and EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.
YouTube link: A conversation on intersectionality with Dr Arun Verma
Led by Dr Arun Verma in conversation with Royal Holloway’s own Dr Barbara Chinyani, this session explores the thinking and practice of intersectionality, and the ways it can be integrated into educational spaces to embed and sustain meaningful inclusion and belonging.
Organised by the EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.
This event was not recorded in full, but a 5 minute summary of the main learning points is available on YouTube and as a PowerPoint presentation with voiceover.
Workplaces are increasingly more age diverse, with twice as many people aged over 65 years in employment today compared to 10 years ago. This webinar with Age Scotland explored the topics of age bias in the workplace, how to respond effectively to ageism issues, and capitalising on the benefits of age diversity in the workplace whilst minimising risks.
Organised by the EDI Team.
As queer club performance comes under attack from the far right in the United States, the iridescence of queer nightlife provides an important example of what it means to live otherwise. This conversation with madison moore articulates the lasting significance of fabulousness and queer nightlife as poetic methods of living in and through the five alarm fire of everyday life.
Organised by the LGBT+ Staff Network, Black and Global Majority Network, School of Performing and Digital Arts, and EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.
This event examines Professor Kalwant Bhopal’s ongoing work in anti-racism, the challenges minoritised/racialised colleagues continue to face in HE today, and what a truly equitable HE institution might look like. Her research specifically explores how processes of racism, exclusion and marginalisation operate in predominantly white spaces, with a focus on social justice and inclusion.
Organised by the Black and Global Majority Staff Network and EDI Team.
Access the recording on YouTube.