7th Annual BME ECR Conference blog
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Dr Kate Jones describes the events and importance of the 7th annual Black and Minority Ethnic Early Career Researchers Conference, held at University of Leeds and co-hosted with the University of West London.
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I first heard about the BME ECR Conference, like so many of us, through an encounter with Dr Bernadine Idowu-Onibokun (University of West London). In the Q&A at the end of a panel discussion on ED&I in research, Bernadine quite rightly challenged myself and colleagues about engaging with grass roots community endeavours and initiatives for researchers.
With this in mind, I attended the conference primarily to understand what more I as a researcher developer can do to support minoritised early career researchers in my institution and more widely.
The proceedings were kicked off by Bernadine, who founded the conference seven years ago to empower and enable BME ECRs (Black and Minority Ethnic Early Career Researchers) to thrive in academia. Bernadine shared some insights on the positive impact of the conference over the years. The fact that BME colleagues have more confidence and desire to stay in academia after attending the conference shows how necessary such interventions are.
Next up was Professor Simone Buitendijk (VC and President, University of Leeds) who spoke passionately about the denial of discrimination and bias in academia and caked for further collaboration between institutions to address ED&I. She highlighted the fundamental role universities can play in tackling global challenges if they practise "radical collaboration."
Brightness Mangolothi (Director, Higher Education Resource Services, South Africa) was next on the bill with a powerful talk entitled ‘Building Communities of Influence: Using an Ubuntu Lens.’ The central question of the talk was "whose knowledge matters?"
Historically BME voices have been silenced and erased, not because they don’t have value but because of who they belong to. This silencing means that crucial knowledge, approaches and ideas about how to solve the big challenges of our time (such as the SDGs 2030 ) are not being heard.
This is a pertinent point for all of us working to improve research culture in higher education (HE). Many research culture initiatives focus on behaviours and values but some of the key influences on, and components of, culture are systemic and environmental. We are in danger of focusing too much on individual behaviour change and too little on the systems and environments that at once reflect and have produced the research cultures we want to change. Focusing on individuals will not provide us with the solutions we so desperately need; collective and collaborative action is needed.
With inclusivity being a central strand of research culture, perhaps addressing the unhomeliness of the academy for minoritised people is a good place to start. Brightness’s point that, as a BME academic, "from the first day you step into the university you are not welcome" is hard to hear but important to keep in mind. Asking ourselves, "is it fair to treat unequal people equally?" we can move from the notion of equality to equity to achieve an inclusive HE environment and culture.
Brightness ended her talk with a call to humanise our HE spaces so that they better accommodate all colleagues. Building a community, she said, is like building a home where everyone feels welcome and does not need to modify (or, worse, erase) their identity in order to belong. Constructing this community is necessarily a collective effort across countries and institutions.
After a quick break we were back for a panel on 'Navigating the academy as a minoritised person - lessons and opportunities.' The panel rose to their task of giving excellent advice to BME ECRs. Dr Maria Hussain spoke about how to become visible for competitive developmental opportunities and overcome promotion gaps. She advised attendees to celebrate progress to date, draw on and expand professional networks and think beyond their department/institution/sector.
Dr Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso shared her experience of driving the EDI strategy after an incident of discrimination drove her to want to bring about change. She advised that EDI networks are a great way of influencing senior leaders in an institution and expanding networks of like-minded people. This was echoed by Professor Georgina Cox, who made a useful point about the value of networking across your institution to gain allies and knowledge.
Seun Coker, a postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds, spoke about the power of community and faith to help navigate his many moves across countries and cities, and highlighted the value of having people with whom you can "just be."
Ideas of identity and belonging were developed by Professor Kamyar Afarinkia, who spoke about the feeling of being an outsider in the academy. His point about the value of mentoring as a way of counteracting this feeling was the point that most hit home for me; probably because managing mentoring schemes is part of my role so it feels like an area in which I can take action.
Kamyar’s final bit of advice for BME ECRs was that they should decide for themselves what success looks like and ignore the very narrow definition of a 'successful' researcher. This is such a powerful point and reminds me of my time working at Vitae and all my colleagues in researcher development who are working hard to redefine notions of success in researcher careers.
On the subject of career success as a researcher, Professor Jason Arday reminded us in his keynote address of the importance of collectivism over and above individualism. In opposition to individualism, where the ladder is pulled up, we need to push the ladder down to help others and use our collective punch to achieve change.
Jason highlighted the collective efforts of women of colour in academia and beyond who do so much for their communities but don't necessarily reap the benefits. Jason’s distinction between real empathy and ‘disposable empathy’ struck a chord. His talk was a call to arms, asking us to consider what we as a HE community can and should do to help our most vulnerable and minoritised members.
It was almost time for me to go (a little earlier than I would’ve liked) but I managed to catch one of the workshops, ‘Leading in places that aren't designed with you in mind,' facilitated by Dr Claire Malcolm (The Open University). Claire's starting image of her as a child in a ballet outfit introduced the story of how she and three other black children were excluded from their ballet class due to discrimination – maybe they'd prefer to do tap or jazz instead?
Claire's mum removed her from the class to protect her from spending time in a toxic environment. And this, Claire reflected, was a good thing in some ways but not in others. Connecting the toxicity of the discriminatory ballet class with the potentially toxicity of higher education that makes BME colleagues feel unwelcome, is the answer to withdraw from spaces that are unaccommodating? As Claire put it: "if you only take up space that is designed to accommodate you, you risk being denied the opportunities that you deserve."
This statement feels like a good one to end on, not least because my lasting memory of the BME ECR conference will be of a truly diverse space where many talented and committed people generously shared their experiences and forcefully but compassionately reminded each other of their right to inhabit and belong in the spaces of higher education.
Dr Kate Jones, Researcher Development and Training Manager, Manchester Metropolitan University