2024 Athena Swan President’s Symposium

27 Feb 2024

We invite you to join us on Thursday 29th February between 9.30-11.30am in the Dora Allman Room for the 2024 Athena Swan President’s Symposium which this year is focusing on care and caring.

We know that a significant number of staff and students within the University are engaged in caring activities or are in receipt of care. In the 2022 UCC Culture and Values Staff Survey 69% of respondents stated that they were engaging in caring responsibilities of one form or another, with 16% of respondents to the 2021 EDI Student Survey stating they engaged in caring. This symposium forms part of a series of ‘Conversations about Caring,’ facilitated by the EDI Unit. Care is also a topical issue in society at present given the upcoming constitutional referendum, and the symposium will consider the background and wording of the proposed amendment, before moving on to discuss care and care relations more broadly and to interrogate how society can re-envision care. See below for the list of speakers. This event is in person but should you prefer to attend online, please drop us an email and we will forward a Teams link. If you require an ISL interpreter, please contact us directly.

Following the symposium will be the launch of an exhibition on care in the Dora Allman at 11.45am. The exhibition, titled ‘Fostering a sense of belonging for higher education staff and students with caring responsibilities’ is an original research and art based collaboration between Professor Marie-Pierre Moreau at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and Professor Sally Campbell Galman, an independent cartoonist at the University of Massachusetts. The project aims to raise awareness of carers and the diversity and intersectionalities of their experiences, and to encourage the development of practices and policies which foster carers’ sense of belonging. The exhibition will be on display in the Hub until the 15th of March.