This virtual event follows on from a successful series of in-person pilot events held last year in collaboration with Ladders4Action. These women-of-colour led events developed meaningful staff-student partnerships to make universities more equitable spaces.
The free event will take place on 31 May from 10am-2.30pm, with two workshops aimed at guiding BAME students and researchers in developing a strong online presence and connecting with like-minded people in their institutions and beyond.
More information on each of the workshops can be found below:
Morning Session: Becoming a Digital Thought Leader
Joyann Boyce
In this session, participants will learn the essential components of building a robust social media presence. Through practical examples and hands-on exercises, attendees will gain actionable insights and tools to help them reach their target audience effectively.
Upon completing the workshop, participants will be equipped with the knowledge and resources necessary to achieve their goals and build a successful online presence that supports their research and professional objectives.
Afternoon Session: Creating Academic Community
Iman Khan, Rhianna Garrett, and Dr Angela Martinez Dy
Facilitators and participants in this session will connect and share ideas around building intentional, purposeful and resilient academic communities, with common values that enable collective resistance against inequitable institutional structures.
Using vision boarding and gamification, the group will imagine the kinds of academic communities they want and collaboratively troubleshoot some barriers that they may encounter. They will be introduced to examples of exciting past and ongoing work in this area to serve as inspiration for their own community building projects and practice.
Image: Afternoon session speakers (from L-R) - Iman Khan, Dr Angela Martinez Dy, and Rhianna Garrett
The full agenda for the day is as follows:
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10am-10.05am: Welcome
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10.05am-11.35am: Becoming a Digital Thought Leader
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11.35am-12.30pm: Lunch break
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12.30pm-2pm: Creating Academic Community
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2pm-2.10pm: Break
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2.10pm-2.30pm: Reflections, Next Steps and Close
There are limited spaces available, and priority will be given to those who can attend both sessions on the day.
Dr Angela Martinez Dy commented: “It’s a pleasure to work with Loughborough’s CITHEI CDT Doctoral Researchers and our delivery partner Joyann Boyce to host this unique event. Tailored activity like this, which centres the needs and experiences of Doctoral Researchers from racially minoritised backgrounds, is a way to meaningfully transform culture and increase early career BAME scholars’ sense of belonging in academia.”