Event 2: Advancing Inclusion in Chemical Sciences Teaching and Training
Event Title: Advancing Inclusion in Chemical Sciences Teaching and Training
Monday 1 July 2024, 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Hybrid – online and in-person in the Wolfson Seminar Room, Chemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry
Talk, followed by refreshments and networking
Professor Caroline Dessent and Dr Kelechi Uleanya from the University of York will discuss their practical approaches to inclusive teaching in Chemistry. Join us for an engaging discussion that is relevant to all areas of science, chaired by Professor Stephen Faulkner, Head of Chemistry.
To sign up for the event, please complete this Microsoft Form.
Abstract
York Chemistry has a well-established reputation for its work to support Gender Equality in Science careers. Much of the early work conducted by the department focused on recruiting and retaining women, and ensuring that they were promoted at equal rates to men. This initial focus on gender equality has evolved into a broader work that encompasses many aspects of diversity and inclusion, including race, LGBTQ+, and disability. Over recent years, the Department has made efforts to ensure that its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) work extends into how it delivers teaching and training to undergraduate and post-graduate chemists. In this talk, we’ll give an account of work done to decolonise and diversify the Chemistry Curriculum at York, and broader efforts to promote EDI throughout our chemistry teaching programs. We will also describe some of the EDI research projects currently being conducted in our Department to develop new approaches to support minoritized students.
Speaker profiles
Caroline Dessent is Head of Department and a Professor of Physical and Analytical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at York (@ChemistryatYork). Her research group (@DessentLab) works on photoactive molecules and ensembles, with applications in biological systems and human health. She was previously the Chair of the Equality and Diversity Group in Chemistry (2017-2021), where she led all of the equality, diversity and inclusion work conducted by the department, including lead the Chemistry Department’s successful 2019 Gold Athena Swan award. She has combined her scientific career with raising three children (James, Grace and Kitty), and worked part time between 2009 and 2020.
Caroline has been a passionate advocate for the careers of women in science for many years, but has more recently focused on working to improve the participation of minoritzed ethnic scientists in Academia. She established work at York to Decolonize the Chemistry Curriculum, and runs an RSC funded projects to investigate the lived experienced of minoritized Chemistry students and staff.
Dr Kelechi O. Uleanya is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in physical chemistry at the University of York. She was awarded her PhD at York in 2021 for laser interfaced mass spectrometry studies of biological and pharmaceutically relevant molecules. She has continued to work with Caroline Dessent for her post-doctoral studies, where she is investigating the excited state properties of flavin molecules. Before pursing her PhD, she gained her first and second degrees (BSc & MSc) from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria, and worked as a Lecturer in Chemistry at the National Open University of Nigeria. She is a member of the RSC Spectroscopy and Dynamics interest group committee, and has recently been elected as a member of the Faraday Community Council.
Alongside her chemistry research, Kelechi is heavily involved in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work at the University of York. She served as the post-graduate EDI representative and is currently the Chemistry Department PDRA representative on the EDI committee. She has developed a resource to support decolonisation of the chemistry curriculum, and has published a number of EDI studies in the refereed literature.
To sign up for the event, please complete this Microsoft Form.