Authenticating...
All-round Athena SWAN Success
By: Communications
The Athena Swan Charter is a framework used to support and transform gender equality within Higher Education and research. Art, Media, and American Studies (AMA), History (HIS) and Pharmacy (PHA) are the most recent Athena SWAN Award successes at UEA, supported by colleagues in UEA’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team. HIS and AMA gained their first Athena SWAN Bronze Award, with Pharmacy successfully applying for Bronze Renewal.
AMA’s application was particularly strengthened because the school currently employs the only ATS (Academic, Teaching and Scholarship) Professor currently in the Humanities Faculty, Professor Eylem Atakav. Colleagues on ATS contracts have a focus on ‘scholarship’, whilst colleagues on ATR contracts focus on research.
Eylem has worked at UEA for twelve years, starting out as a Lecturer. She outlined her experience in AMA: “It has been a great journey so far, and championing for the importance of scholarship and innovations in teaching (with a particular focus on internationalisation) has been the most exciting part. I am honoured to be the only female ATS professor in HUM as it currently stands, but we certainly need more female colleagues to apply for promotion within the ATS track, and it is my promise to always support colleagues in their journey, too”.
I love the idea of taking teaching and research outside the classroom, outside the campus; and thinking about building connections with the media, policymakers, the public with the aim on contributing to social and cultural change”.
Public engagement is a key element of ATS contracts. “As an ATS Professor I see public engagement and social impact as the heart of an academic’s responsibilities. Research, scholarship and teaching in higher education become more meaningful when engaging with a range of non-academic groups. And the ATS contract has afforded me the opportunity to think more creatively about this connection”.
AMA Athena SWAN Leads Drs Becky Fraser and Jon Mitchell led AMA’s Athena SWAN submission. Dr Fraser said, “AMA are really proud of having achieved a Bronze award in Athena Swan. This is a real marker for us and enables us to effect meaningful and collective changes in culture and consciousness”.
The School of History submission was led by Dr Camilla Schofield and Prof David Milne, and showed particular strength in its promotions process, with an overall success rate of 100% for women and 93% for men since 2015. Both Leads highlighted the need to spark new conversations about equality, adding that “we were able to celebrate our strengths, such as gender equality in the HIS promotions process, but also face up to areas that urgently need new policies and practices. In this sense, the dialogue was as important as the outcome”.
The School of Pharmacy submission was led by Prof Maria O’Connell and Dr Rosemary Norton, who also showed strength in promotion by implementing mentoring schemes. PHA was also one of the first Schools to pilot BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) student ambassadors. Prof O’Connell commented, “we’re really pleased that our Bronze Award was been renewed, recognising the progress we have made, particularly in promotions – leading to a better gender balance at senior level”.
A huge congratulations to all of those involved in the submission process, and for furthering gender equality within their Schools.
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