YCEDE Staff and Scholarship Holders were joined by other ethnically-minoritised PGRs from all partner institutions on Thursday 25th April to hear from a specialist panel on Navigating a Career in Higher Education as an Ethnic Minority. Panel members included Dr Janine Bradbury (University of York), Dr Kingsley Utam (Univeristy of Bradford), Dr Sally Osei-Appiah (University of Leeds), Dr Francis Awolowo (Sheffield Hallam University), Dr Bobby Nisha (University of Sheffield), and Kaixi (Kathy) Xu (University of Sheffield).
After a short introduction from each panellist, the majority of the event was handed over to our attendees to ask for advice or share their questions and concerns about beginning a career in academia. The discussion that followed was a wonderfully honest and vulnerable exchange of experiences, advice, and motivation that will live long in the memory of all who participated. Just some of the topics touched upon included the role of supervisors in making or breaking a PhD experience, the importance of taking opportunities to publish during your PhD, and the difficulties faced when entering fields that remain dominated by whiteness and white research.
A key theme throughout all responses from the panel was the importance of standing up for yourself and your interests, both during and after your PhD. Despite facing adversity, discrimination, and prejudice, each panellist built their success stories by staying true to themselves and their identities and resisting pressure to conform to the sector’s status-quo.
“Yesterday’s event was a stark reminder that the field of research is a blank canvas waiting to be coloured by the magnificent potential of diverse communities. Our unique experiences provide ammunition to the quest of decolonising the world.”
– Zenab Sabahat, YCEDE Scholar’s Board Member; PhD Researcher, University of Bradford
We would like to thank our panellists for sharing their experiences, our PGR attendees for being so engaged and provoking such stimulating conversations, and our WS3 colleagues for organising a fantastic event for all involved.
