News
Reflections on Institutionalising Gender Equality
On 15 November ISS21, with EC funded project GendeResearchIreland, hosted a seminar with Professor Uduak Archibong on the theme of institutionalising gender equality in higher education.
The presentation drew on Professor Archibong's own experiences as Professor of Diversity and Director of the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity at the University of Bradford, which was recently named UK University of the Year for Social Inclusion. Professor Archibong was also International Director (Project Coordinator) of the EC funded project GENOVATE (2013-2017) within which UCC was a partner (led by Dr Caitríona Ni Laoire), as well as Trnava University (Slovakia) where Dr Monica O’Mullane was scientific coordinator of the Slovak GENOVATE team.
In her presentation Professor Archibong discussed the influences that shaped the University of Bradford’s Equality Diversion and Inclusion (EDI) approach and the challenges involved in implementing EDI policies. The seminar included a critical discussion on the Athena SWAN programme as a means of achieving gender equality in higher education.
At the event there was a lively discussion on a number of topics, such as the intersectionality of gender with another initiative in UCC, the Race Equality Charter, as well as discussion about the Athena SWAN application process which is seen as cumbersome and overly technical by some, and part of the bigger picture of the change programme in UCC by others.
The seminar was organised and introduced by MSCA Research Fellow Dr Monica O'Mullane, who shared some initial reflections from her own research on exploring the institutional response to, and process of, Athena SWAN in Irish higher education from the GendeResearchIreland project.
The seminar was funded by GendeResearchIreland. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No.750408.
For more information on this event contact:
Dr Monica O'Mullane (m.omullane@ucc.ie)