SBRC at The University of Nottingham Diversity Festival
From Monday 8 to Friday 19 March 2021, the University of Nottingham is holding its first ever virtual diversity festival.
The festival focuses on ‘embracing and celebrating difference’ with more than 30 virtual events open to staff, students and alumni, which aim to promote understanding and awareness of diversity and inclusion in our community.
MORE DETAILS: Diversity Festival - The University of Nottingham
REGISTER FOR THE EVENT: Book your no-cost tickets at EventBrite
The ten-day festival has a full and exciting programme including interviews, performances, workshops and conversations, with SBRC-Nottingham making its contribution on Friday 12 March with a live event "Celebrating diversity in the SBRC and enhancing inclusiveness"
The SBRC has a diverse mix of staff and student members which is constantly in flux as individuals move on to new pastures and new people join the group. The SBRC brings together individuals from around the world and with a wide range of identities, backgrounds and experiences.
The SBRC is inviting UoN staff, students and alumni to join in a 90 minute 'fire-side chat' session providing an opportunity to celebrate diversity in the SBRC and to open up a conversation about equality and inclusiveness by exploring the journeys which have drawn individuals to (and beyond) the SBRC and identifying the challenges they have faced along the way.
Nuggets from the personal journeys can be applied to broader institutions, cultures and systems of research and innovation. The purpose being to improve diversity and inclusiveness both within the local scientific community and in the ways that Engineering Biology / synthetic biology relates to the wider world.
The session will ask former and current staff members to share some of their life-journeys and their career development, what led them to pursue this area of research, and their aspirations. It will explore best-practice and what kinds of change might be needed to enhance inclusiveness in Engineering Biology.
The session also aims to consider the relationship between diversity, responsible innovation and epistemic decolonisation, for example by reflecting on whether technological advances in synthetic biology (e.g. for new ways of making chemicals, fuels and foods) benefit everyone in the global community and how we might further embed co-creation of solutions and responsible innovation into our thinking and practice.
Facilitating Chairs: Dr Ruth Griffin and Dr Maria Arruda
Guest speakers: Dr Minyeong Yoo (SBRC research scientist), Dr Muhammad Ehsaan (ex-SBRC research scientist), Dr Bunmi Omorotionmwan (SBRC Research Scientist), Dr Swapnika Challa (SBRC research technician)
Register for the event at EventBrite.