Note: The posts are in chronological order starting from the most recent
International day of persons with disabilities – December 3rd
– Vanitas to add content
Transgender day of remembrance – November 20th
– Vanitas to add content
International Men’s Day – November 19th
– Vanitas to add content
RESET Workshops, October
The RESET workshop, developed and delivered by David Delaney of the UCD Student Advisors Group, ran for four consecutive Mondays in the College of Science in October. The goal of the RESET workshop is to improve student self-awareness, shifting away from a “me” to a “we” mindset. The RESET workshop promotes greater levels of compassion, empathy and connection. Student feedback from the workshops was unanimously positive with students asking for the workshops to be run again in the spring Trimester and for a longer duration.
Active* Consent Training, September/October
In collaboration with the Students Union, the Student Advisors and the College of Science EDI Committee, more than 80% of Stage 1 undergraduate students have taken part in Active* Consent workshops. Consent is an ongoing, mutual and freely-given agreement to take part in sexual activity. It applies to all relationships, all genders, and all sexualities. The Active* Consent workshop material was inclusive and well-designed to be relevant and engaging, especially for young men. Further workshops will be rolled out for Stages 2 – 4 in Spring.
Postdoc appreciation week, September 2022
Report by Dr Karina Nigoghossian, College of Science EDI Postdoc Rep
The Postdoc Appreciation week started with a Postdoc Coffee Afternoon on Monday 19th of September 2022. The event was organized by the Research Careers team and hosted by Alanna O’Sullivan (Researcher Development Specialist). Postdocs were able to freely interact, introducing themselves in terms of affiliation, current and previous postdoc experiences, research background and career path. Interestingly, fresh postdocs asked which advice the more experienced ones would give to them. We shared some pleasures and difficulties that life in Dublin offers us, which mainly involved accommodation issues. We also talked about our academic life before, during and after covid. Another common topic was our perspectives for the future and which areas can we can migrate to, if not staying in academia. We also talked about the challenges of our current position, not only related to doing our research and writing papers, but also involving teaching, student supervision, grant writing, and attending career development workshops, among others. Some postdocs mentioned their efforts for building a postdoc community by creating WhatsApp groups and organizing events. All of these conversations among postdocs have shown our motivations for helping each other.
On the 20th of September 2022, the Postdoc Appreciation day was celebrated in an open event organized by UCD College of Health and Agricultural Sciences (CHAS) Postdoctoral Forum. The day started with a coffee where postdoc colleagues could meet and chat around the exhibition of photos representing “A postdoc’s life”, which highlighted the efforts involved in this challenging career phase. Messages of appreciation and support were left in a “Positivitree”. During the morning, postdocs were able to train their communication skills in a workshop by Dr Jessamyn Fairfield (NUI Galway). In a very informal session, we were encouraged to speak briefly about our research. This brief talk practised several times helped us to build our confidence and ability to improvise. In the afternoon, Dr Fairfield gave a motivational talk about being “Open to surprising things”. The session was followed by “Take 5”, a flash talk competition featuring postdocs’ research in an unconventional way. The event ended on a warm note with food and drinks, along with an opportunity for exchanging contacts, in order to keep in touch with postdoc peers who we met during the day.
FATHER’S DAY
To celebrate our fathers and highlight some of the supports for parents available at UCD, the College of Science EDI committee invited staff members in the College of Science who are fathers of children of any age, infant to adult, to provide some insight into being a father in the College. The videos are quite informal and provide some advice for other fathers about what worked or didn’t work so well when trying to balance parenting and work. You can watch the interviews with Antonio, Simon, Rem and Ritchie on our YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqa5E93Qp8&list=PLiE9zWR5-3Yax1Teaw7y8MDmW5mMay3Vi
PRIDE
The College of Science Celebrated Pride Month on June 16th in the O’Brien Centre for Science. College Principal, Prof. Jeremy Simpson launched the celebration and Dr Niamh Nestor, co-Chair of UCD’s EDI LGBTQI+ Subgroup, gave a moving talk highlighting her own experience growing up gay in Ireland and highlighting the origins of Pride as a protest and one which must continue to be seen as a protest to ensure complacency in pursuing equality for LGBTQIA+ individuals does not stall. Niamh highlighted that although huge strides have been made in legalising gay marriage and improving acceptance of queer people in Ireland that there are still marginalized LGBTQIA+ individuals including trans individuals, and queer people of colour who still face discrimination and stigmatization as a result of their gender and sexuality. There is also no hate crime legislation in Ireland which needs to be campaigned for to protect LGBTQIA+ individuals. We had tea, coffee, balloons, a craft table where people could create rainbow bracelets to take away, and most importantly, a giant rainbow cake! The event was well attended with representation from across the community including students, technical, administrative and faculty members. Feedback was overall highly positive and suggested that the event should be expanded and repeated next year.
(Check for permission with Jez, Gary, Niamh and Baribre)
Photo credits: Dr Craig Slattery, School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science
Postdoc Networking Event, 1 June
The CoS EDI Committee hosted a networking event for postdocs in the O’Keefe lounge at the Clubhouse bar. The objective was to provide a sociable, informal space for postdocs within the College to meet and develop relationships. We felt that such an event was particularly relevant to postdocs, many of whom spent large portions of their time at UCD working from home. The event centred around a table quiz with food provided for attendees. The event was very well received. Three teams competed in the quiz, which went to a tie-breaker, and the feedback from attendees was uniformly positive. There will be similar events held in the following months.
23rd May – NOT JUST THE 8TH OF MARCH
“Not just the 8th of March” was the first EDI symposium of the series “Behind the position”, organised by the EDI PhD members of the UCD School of Chemistry, Maria Rosa Fernandez Pison, Francesca Giulia Nacca, and Mara Di Filippo . The aim of this event was to raise awareness among the scientific community about gender equality, particularly focused on the career path of women who occupy higher positions in academia and industry. For this reason, seven speakers from different employment backgrounds, work and/or family situations, genders and cultures shared their life experiences and hurdles to achieve higher career positions. Moreover, the event was intended to introduce women role models to younger scientists. As PhD students, we believe it is important to show them that, despite the difficulties, it is everyone’s responsibility to make the professional workplace more inclusive and accessible to everyone, regardless of their gender, culture, religion, or background. We strongly believe that big changes must be made together.
17th May – IDAHOBIT
IDAHOBIT is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, Intersexism and Biphobia. UCD College of Science is committed to ensuring that our community is LGBTI inclusive. Check out the Top Ten Tips for supporting LGBTI inclusion here: https://www.ucd.ie/equality/support/lgbtisupports/idahobit2022/
RAMADAN – How to Accommodate Muslim Employees During Ramadan
The College of Science EDI committee would like to raise awareness that many of our Muslim staff and students are fasting during Ramadan, highlighting some of the issues in an accessible way.
25th March – UCD NEURODIVERSITY CELEBRATION WEEK – NEURODIVERSITY WEBINAR
March 21-27 is Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2022. The College of Science EDI Committee in collaboration with Julie Tonge and Fiona Quinn, UCD Access & Lifelong Learning, presented a workshop for students who are neurodiverse or who have an interest in neurodiversity. The webinar covered topics such as the supports in UCD for neurodiverse students, top tips for focusing in lectures and where to go for more information or to seek a diagnosis. A link to a recording of the webinar is available here (add link)
Check out the official website for Neurodiversity Celebration Week for further resources on the topic: https://www.neurodiversity-celebration-week.com/
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Anyone who has experienced, been impacted by or witnessed harassment on the grounds of race can contact the UCD Dignity & Respect Support Service for both informal and formal support. The Dignity & Respect Support Service can be contacted by telephone at 01 716 7716 or by email at respect@ucd.ie. Further details can be found on the Dignity & Respect website (https://www.ucd.ie/dignityandrespect/supports/dignityrespectsupportservice/)
Speak Up – #FightRacism
MENOPAUSE WORKSHOPS – 8th/11th March
As part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, the College of Science hosted two webinars on menopause “An Introduction to Menopause” and “Menopause In The Workplace For Managers” with Loretta Dignam from The Menopause Hub. These educational webinars help to break down the taboo surrounding menopause and demonstrate how menopause is a societal, healthcare, workplace and economic issue. Topics covered include: what is menopause and why does it matter; the symptoms and available treatment options; the line manager’s role in supporting menopause at work; and how to have confident and supportive conversations with staff and provide the best support. A recording of the introduction to menopause webinar is available here (add link)
8 March – INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022
Happy International Women’s Day!
To help break the bias, a range of events are being held across the University to mark International Women’s Day. For a full list of events, please visit
https://www.ucd.ie/equality/support/genderequalityandathenaswanatucd/internationalwomensday2022/
pSTEM ROLE MODELS – International Day of Women and Girls in Science
To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science the UCD College of Science launched a new video series ‘Role Models in pSTEM: You Can Be What You Can See’, showcasing ten contemporary women from across Ireland, including UCD alumni, who have studied physics, mathematics, engineering, or computer science to highlight the varied and exciting opportunities open to young women in pSTEM. Leading the project, which was funded by the Higher Education Authority and the Institute of Physics, are Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, Assistant Professor at the UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics, and Dr Catherine Mooney, Associate Professor in the UCD School of Computer Science. The full suite of videos, with associated teaching resources for use in classrooms, is available here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCYrh8Eh848_Ljzfx5BXiE9A
Check out the full article here:
TRANSGENDER AWARENESS WEEK 2021
Join us in promoting an inclusive UCD for trans students and colleagues during Transgender Awareness Week 2021
Here (https://prideatwork.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Beyond-Diversity-LGBT-Guide.pdf) are some suggestions to celebrate it and be inclusive!
For example, you can add your pronouns in your email signature and Zoom
RACISM STOPS WITH ME
Join the UCD EDI campaign to raise awareness and promote an inclusive and respectful environment on campus!
https://www.ucd.ie/equality/information/raceandethnicequalityinucd/