This was possible thanks to a successful bid submitted by Dr Angela Dy, a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship on behalf of the BAME Staff Network, for the Race Equality Charter/ Loughborough University Race Equity Strategy funding which has been made available.
On the first day, staff and Doctoral Researchers came together for a community dinner to create a safe space for connection and belonging, to share knowledge around racialised barriers to career progression and success, and to upskill staff network members.
Michelle Moore, an award-winning leadership coach, author and speaker, ran a session entitled ‘The Conscious Leader in You’. This session covered topics including resilience, mindset, self-awareness, and how to challenge the status quo, with Michelle also drawing on her own experiences.
EDI Manager Denise Coles ran a workshop on the resistance to EDI and race equity work, and how this can be managed. Dr Angela Dy also led a session on equipping attendees looking to challenge racism at the University more widely with strategies such as facilitating anti-racist conversations with peers, colleagues, and managers.
Furthermore, historian and sociologist Tre Ventour-Griffiths presented to the group why the teaching of empire and slavery should broaden beyond the history curriculum, having a place in other disciplines such as English literature, psychology, business, politics and more.
The conference supported the University’s Race Equality Charter Action Plan by achieving objectives against the following actions:
-
Creation of leadership mechanisms to create/facilitate racialised minority group leaderships and opportunities and pathways
-
A session with racialised minority group staff to understand any organisational barriers to progression and to implement actions to overcome these barriers.
Denise Coles said of the event: “The first BAME Network Inaugural Conference was a huge success, evidenced by the level of learning, awareness raising, knowledge development, and community building that occurred during the day.
“This all would not have been possible without the skilful planning and coordinating of the event by Deborah Bowen, Head of Operations at our Loughborough London campus. The attendees’ enthusiasm and engagement throughout the day were captured by Jason Grant (JPG Photography) who provided an expert photography service all day long. Moving forward, it is anticipated that this will pique the interest and curiosity in the Network from potential members and strengthen and boost the involvement of current members.”