The survey, which is being co-funded by the University alongside the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), has been established following on from a recent review of the portfolio of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK’s national funding agency investing in science and research, which revealed that the proportion of awardees who identify as Black and Black heritage academics is severely underrepresented.
BLACK ACADEMIA NEWS
Liverpool academic and co-author of Black Academia policy reports was conferred a Doctor of Letters by Liverpool Hope University, BBC News, 25 July 2024
Malik Al Nasir, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, received his honour at a ceremony at the Liverpool Cathedral.
University of Liverpool sign up for the Race Equality Charter and co-fund Black Academia policy documents, July 2023
“People need a sense and place of belonging to thrive.” It’s a simple statement but also a powerful reminder that universities are not yet providing the environment or conditions where Black students and staff can succeed without facing barriers to that success.
These words above – spoken by the founder of Race and Education All-Party Parliamentary Group, L’myah Sherae, at a recent presentation on Barriers to Black Academia – remind me of how far we have to go in our journey to eliminate racial inequalities in higher education. But they also fill me with a passion and determination for the work we’re already doing to reduce disparities
University of Bristol launches £1.6m “Breaking the Barriers to Black Academia in STEM, EPSRC Fellowship” following on from our roundtable discussion
The EPSRC awarded a grant (£1.6m) to Professor Steve Eichhorn in the Bristol Composites Institute for a fellowship on “Realising Functional Cellulosic Bio-based Composites”. Fellowships are schemes that allow academics at all levels to focus on research, to make a difference in a field. The fellowship includes Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I).
Malik Al Nasir delivers Grand Challenges lecture at Keele University “Lifting the Barriers to Black Academia through Positive Action and Decolonisation”
As a black person growing up in a predominantly white society, there are often a range of intersectional barriers we face, particularly in education. Higher rates of child poverty, often institutionalised and systemic racism within the structures of the society, when added to the historic misconceptions of Black people, fostered through hundreds of years of disinformation – a legacy of enslavement and colonialism – result in a plethora of disadvantage. This often feeds into poorer academic outcomes, than even similarly disadvantaged white children, who do not have the added factors of race to contend with.
Black Academia “Breaking Barriers” in STEM survey at the University of Bristol
Researchers at the University of Bristol are calling for participants to take part in a new survey designed to expose areas of racial injustices in national funding award practices.
“Barriers to Black Academia Roundtable Workshop” with Supergen Energy Networks Hub and Yesternight Productions Ltd., at University of Bristol
On Friday the 25th of March 2022, the Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Prof. Phil Taylor and members of the Supergen Energy Networks Hub team based at the University of Bristol, hosted a roundtable workshop at Clifton Hill House, as part of the ‘Barriers to Black Academia’ symposia series, devised by Malik Al Nasir (PhD candidate at University of Cambridge and director of Yesternight Productions Ltd.) and Dr Leana Vaughn (Derby Fellow at University of Liverpool). This forms part of Supergen Energy Network Hub’s commitment to supporting equality, diversity and inclusion, and to improve participation with under-represented groups as our Hub grows.
BLACK ACADEMIA EVENTS
16 October 2024 – Launch of the Black Academia policy reports, UK Parliament
The Parliamentary launch of the Black Academia policy reports will take place on the 16th October 2024.
16 May 2024 – Breaking The Barriers to Black Academia Workshop (How to build networks of Black academics to develop funding applications in STEM)
Breaking Barriers to Black Academia is holding a workshop to help build networks of academics to develop funding applications in STEM.
23 August 2021 – Barriers to Black Academia - Slavery, Colonialism and the Case for Reparative Justice (Online symposium)
Starting on Slavery Remembrance Day (23rd August 2021) and running through to the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (25th March 2022), this series of online panel discussions will discuss the barriers to Black academia in the UK with internationally renowned scholars and activists. View recordings of all panels.