EDI Caucus

Why is it so difficult to make reasonable adjustments when assessing disabled PGRs? Reasonable adjustments for disabled postgraduate research students are still running up against opposition. Theresa McKinven, Katherine Dean and Paula Holland explore what’s going wrong and how to put...

Last week on Wonkhe: Reasonable adjustments for disabled postgraduate research students are still running up against opposition. Theresa McKinven, Katherine Dean and Paula Holland explore what’s going wrong and how to put it right

This article suggests the possibility of training AI on pre-existing proposals and their review reports, scores and related decisions. I.e. training them on a system which is known to preferentially award larger amounts of money to white men. What could possibly go wrong?

More real talk from James Richards if EDICa at the @edicaucus.bsky.social symposium today: EDI as messy, not a 'nice' subject. People who want to make a difference need to get their hands dirty.

Lots of amazing stuff at the @edicaucus.bsky.social symposium today. Especially liked the provocations from PI Kate Sang, who talked about the need to take a critical lens to the EDI work we're doing and the need to make sure "we aren't just helping institutions 'badge' themselves as inclusive."

Busy but brilliant week on the Divergent Minds in the Archive project: co-ran our "Accessing Archives and Collections" symposium Mon & Tues, now en route to Heriot-Watt to talk about our findings at the @edicaucus.bsky.social symposium! #Neurodiversity

A classroom with comfy blue chairs in front of wood tables. 8 men and women of various races sit scattered in a rough circle talking. In the background a presentation screen shows Heriot-Watt University's logo.

EDICa Symposium. 20 November 2025 09:30-16:30 GMT. FREE. Join us on Zoom. What works in creating equitable and accessible careers in research and innovation. BSL logo, BSL provided. QR. url. Funded by UKRI and British Academy.

Tomorrow is the big day for us - EDICa's Symposium on 'what "works" in creating equitable and accessible careers in research & innovation'. Not too late to sign up to join on zoom.
zoom.us/webinar/regi...
#BSL is provided, captions provided, slides in advance, breaks throughout.

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care? The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...

Photo of an ancient Roman brick wall about 8 foot high with big arches.

Photo of the information plaque showing artist rendition of the Roman baths. Below is a black and white photo of a woman unearthing the old wall and text about Kathleen Kenyon

Photo of large plaque on a street about Kathleen Kenyon. Black and white photos of the woman and a large team of archaeologists and the site in the 1930s.

What was nice to see was credit given to a female archaeologist in the 1930s for discovering the Roman baths on this site. Kathleen Kenyon.

On a table a black tote bag and printed conference materials. The main one has a photo of a black woman in shawl and head covering with title The importance of black archives in preserving historical memory.

Photo of the statue of Richard III holding up a crown. Behind is an autumnal beech hedge and brick buildings.

A photo of Leicester cathedral and the autumnal square of trees and beech hedges.

Your correspondent has been let out of the office to attend the Black Heritage Voices conference in Leicester today.
Held at the Jewry Wall Museum, which I thought would have something to do with Jewish history of some kind, but really doesn’t. It’s medieval jury spelling and is all Roman history!

If you’re in the Scottish central belt, there’s still time to join us on 14th Nov, learn about periods at work, and tap into your creative side.
The venue is right beside Wester Hailes station

eventbrite.co.uk/e/period-talk-periods-power-work-tickets-1616538112009?aff=ebdssbdestsearch&keep_tld=1

We’re holding two workshops at different times- a Thursday morning and the second one on Friday 14th Nov 5-7pm.
@beinghumanfest.bsky.social is funded by AHRC and @britishacademy.bsky.social both funders for EDICa.
It aims to bring #humanities to the public.

The workshop brings our research on #MenstrualHealth in the workplace to a wider audience while attendees they to create zine pages for a collective magazine we will have printed and PDF’d to share.

Four women pose beside a long yellow table with creative materials scattered across it. Two white women on the left, and on the right, a black woman with head covering and a Chinese woman with long black hair.

A refreshment station, with a small plant, tiny pumpkins, several plates of pastries and cakes, and fruit. Behind which is tea, making facilities.

A single Story small building with a car park in front. The building is painted bright yellow and has a ramp to a side door on the right.

Today EDICa is holding its first workshop with the #BeingHuman2025 festival. We’ve partnered with the Community Wellbeing Collective in Wester Hailes, a part of Edinburgh with multiple deprivation, just 7 min drive from Heriot-Watt University.

A classroom with tables with cups and pens and post it notes. At the board is a long stretch of white paper with a big arrow with lots of drawings and writing on it. The white woman illustrator stands adding more.

“We’re always very caught up in academic terminology and lingo. It’s nice to have another means for us to refer back to and to make our research more accessible beyond the bounds of academia. In this case, Clare is asking questions and asking us to say it again in ‘English’, go slower.” -Dr Cocco //

A white woman with long fair hair stands at a long stretch of white paper taped to a couple of classroom whiteboards. She stretches up to write at the top. Writing and small illustrations are on the left and right with white space in the middle for future drawings.

Today one of our postdocs is hosting a @britishacademy.bsky.social ECR Network-funded Reproductive Health Network and Research Agenda.
The event brings people together to spark ideas and collaborate. But there’s also @listenthinkdraw.bsky.social illustrating what they’re saying. 1/2

As we come to the end of our @edicaucus.bsky.social funded 'Divergent Minds in the Archive' project, we're delighted to invite you to 'Accessing Archives and Collections: Disability, Neurodivergence, Chronic Illness' - a free online symposium on 17th and 18th November. 1/n

"Thus, some of the well-documented ‘productivity gap’ may not be a gap in the contribution of women to science at all, but rather a gap in how much their contributions are recognized."
fin 🧵

"The key finding of this work is that, regardless of the measure of scientific credit, and despite efforts to standardize credit, women are much less likely than men to be credited with authorship."
🧵

“My career would've been quite different with these 2 Nature papers” (woman)
“Being left off papers for which I was 1 of the 2 main leads has greatly damaged my career as a researcher and my chance to get promotion, jobs, and grant funding. I am still an academic but in a teaching role” (woman); 🧵

"lack of clarity with respect to authorship rules, [...] reinforces organizational structure. Rules are often determined by senior researchers (who are disproportionately men), and are often governed by personal relationships and idiosyncratic preferences, which reportedly led to disagreements."🧵

“Senior authors shamed me in front of group for asking for recognition (trying not to be a female-doormat stereotype backfires pretty much every time I have tried...)”.
(female participant seeking credit on a paper)
🧵

Euan's Guide have launched their Access Survey for this year! If you are disabled, or have a disabled loved one, please check it out - it's really important that we have a wide, diverse range of voices taking part!

On Thursday Sofia Olendraru from PERIODically presented at the Variety in Chemistry/Physics Higher Education Conference 2025!

Sofia presented her poster titled ‘Towards Period Dignity: Increasing and Improving Accessible Provision of Free Period Products’.

❤️🩸🧪

#ViCEPHEC2025

Disrupting the Default: Anti-Ableist Research Culture - White Rose University Consortium Professor Dan Goodley and Professor Rebecca Lawthom lead the Wellcome Anti-Ableist Research Culture (WAARC) project at the University of Sheffield.

Our PI Dan Goodley and Prof Rebecca Lawthorn talk about the difficulties of changing culture in universities, and how others can get involved in building inclusive environments for disabled people @whiteroseuc.bsky.social: whiterose.ac.uk/news/disrupt...

Indeed! And then send it to us to share!

“Neurodiverse leadership is not about meeting quotas. It is about strengthening quality. The sector cannot afford to waste talent or exclude perspectives that could help it adapt and thrive.”

#neurodiversity #DEI #EDI #AcademicSky #HigherEducation

Strong alt text work here

Research Methods: Co-production in a neurodiversity context - EDICa Seminar on Covid-19's impact on research & innovation careers.

Co-production
- Equitable partnership of stakeholders - e.g. the public
- Shared power and responsibility, mutual learning, genuine inclusion especially of marginalised groups.

View the slides and watch the seminar here:
edicaucus.ac.uk/research-met...
#AcademicSky #Neurodiversity #EDI #DEI

a cartoon character is holding a bottle of strawberry juice Alt: an odd green cartoon character with a wide toothy closed mouth, two short legs, two short arms holds a bottle of strawberry juice in one hand and a bottle of blueberry in the other and looks indecisively between the two.

What's the difference between co-design and co-production?
In our seminar on 2 October, Prof McDowall explained:

Co-design
- Collaborative approach
- Often used in public health
- Shapes research questions, methods & outcomes
(1/2)

Comic showing four levels of panels. In first, Babbage is bored beside his machine. Narrative - Then, at a party on June 5th 1833... . Babbage sighs Nobody understands me. Lovelace can be seen studying the machine intently. She explodes, "Astounding!! In enabling mechanism to combine together general symbols in successions of unlimited variety and extent, a uniting link is established between the operations of matter--". Babbage looks surprised. Eh? Ada continues, "and the abstract mental processes of the most abstract branch of mathematical science!!!!". Babbage exclaims in delight, Yes, yes exactly. Ada, still excited says, A new, vast, and powerful language is developed for the future use of analysis so it may become of more speedy and accurate practical application for the purposes of mankind than the means hitherto in our possession have rendered possible!". A couple of party goers in the background mutter to each other "Hey look... we're present for the invention of the geek!". Lovelace looks at her fan saying This must be twittered! She looks confused, wait, this is a fan. Then sad. Suddenly there is a gaping hole in my life of which i was hitherto unaware.

A maroon front cover showing a carton of Babbage in his steam pipe hat, and Lovelace in dress but smoking pipe in her mouth, both determinedly marching towards the view. In Victorian style writing, The Thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. The (mostly) true story of the first computer. Celebrated and distinguished characters instructive and amusing scenes; as performed within and without the remarkable difference engine embellished with portraits and scientifick diagrams the performance to conclude with the lively face.

For #AdaLovelaceDay your correspondent can personally recommend Sydney Padua's steampunk graphic novel of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.

Makes a great gift for a friend, too.
(And yes, you can admire the ALT text)