Celebrating our Equity and Inclusion Research Fund

The Equity and Inclusion initiative has been an important part of our ongoing commitments to attracting, retaining, and promoting a diverse academic and research community, and ensuring that everybody feels supported to progress in their careers according to their aspirations. This is vital for our Athena Swan gender equality commitments as well as our Race Equality Charter aspirations at LBU.

We recognise that some colleagues face more EDI-related barriers in their academic and research careers, supporting the research and careers of groups currently underrepresented in senior academic positions at LBU and in the sector more widely.

For these reasons, colleagues from Black, Asian and minoritised backgrounds were particularly encouraged to apply, as well as women, LGBTQ+ people and those with caring responsibilities, disabilities or returning from a Maternity Leave or a career break.

The Equity and Inclusion Fund

The Equity and Inclusion Fund’s objectives strategically aligned with the broader work being done to stimulate a Black and Global Majority Researcher Network at LBU, something that a number of our fund recipients are keen to support.

In 2022 we received £150,000 and funded 15 projects. After the success of the first round, in 2023, a total fund of £90,000 was made available for research projects - with a further £30,000 ring-fenced to support EDI-related networks and training, including a bespoke professional development programme from Advance HE for Early Career Researchers.

All applications evidenced how their work would have positive equity, diversity and inclusion benefits either in their field, for LBU or in the community.

Some academics applied for the first time – and some applied for follow-on funding to continue working on longer term projects. We were delighted to support several colleagues who had not received any grant funding before to obtain this grant.

The grants were awarded in January 2023, with all funding to be spent by the end of July 2023.

Dr Emily Zobel Marshall

One of this year’s grant recipients was Dr Emily Zobel Marshall, Reader in Postcolonial Literature in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. She said: “I used my EDI funding to work on a small solo research project focused on Black walking groups in the UK. I carried out a series of ‘Walk and Talk’ interviews with leaders and participants of Black hiking groups in the UK with a particular focus on Yorkshire and the north.

“I wanted to better understand the motivation behind hiking groups for People of Colour, the perceived mental and physical health benefits of hiking and the sense of community and belonging that the groups bring. I interviewed members of Black Girls Hike, Black Scottish Adventurers and Peaks of Colour. I found that these groups form a radical, vital grassroots network for participants and the mental health and physical benefits that participants gain from their experiences with the group are both profound and life-changing.

“I hope that the research will feed a larger project that I would eventually like to develop for Women of Colour to respond to their experience of the outdoors in poetry and prose. I look forward to publishing my findings in journal form in the next academic year.”

Dr Ian Fletcher

Dr Ian Fletcher, Senior Lecturer in Architecture in the Leeds School of Arts, has used his grant to work on developing a living material for construction using fungi (mushrooms) called mycelium biocomposites.

He said: “Mycelium biocomposites are a biodegradable, lightweight and regenerative material and their production offers an opportunity for new material innovation to reduce the impact of the construction industry’s waste and related carbon emissions. The development of mycelium biocomposites offers an exciting opportunity to upcycle underutilised waste materials into a low-cost, sustainable, and biodegradable material alternative, which could potentially reduce the use of fossil fuel dependent materials in the construction industry.

“Mycelium biocomposite manufacturing also has the potential to be a major driving force in developing new bioindustries in the Yorkshire region, generating sustainable economic growth while creating new jobs.”

Dr Glen Jankowski

Dr Glen Jankowski, Senior Lecturer in Critical and Social Psychology in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, has used his funding to recruit Pearl Tshimbalanga to work as a research assistant on a decolonizing psychology project.

He explained: “Work that applies Global Southern insights to popular subtopics taught in psychological curricula exists - but is often neglected in the psychology taught in the UK and the Global North.

“Pearl’s project aimed to concretely highlight examples of this, ranging from the application of the pan-African concept of Ubuntu to the self to the impact that languages apart from English can have on cognitive functions. These insights were contextualised by an outline of the discipline of psychology’s historical racism and more recent commitments to global diversity and anti-racism - particularly since the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

“Pearl presented the project at the brilliant Global South Critical Psychology Conference in May 2023 and it has now been accepted for publication in the conference’s associated journal: The Arden Journal of Social Sciences (due November 2023). After successfully gaining a PhD candidacy in the psychology department here at LBU, Pearl is planning to continue this work, to further support psychology educators to engage with decolonial resources.”

Further projects this year have included:

• Identifying barriers for academic women of colour with caring responsibilities at LBU;
• A project to produce a feature film exploring the impact of British colonialism in Ireland;
• Exploring the development of anti-racism frameworks for use in social work and health education and training;
• Empowering and strengthening the Wise Women network to give voice to creative female researchers.

The full list of this year’s successful recipients is:

• Dr Hajar Fatorachian and Dr Sukky Jassi – Leeds Business School
• Shakiya Nisa – Leeds Business School
• Dr Ian Fletcher – Leeds School of Arts
• Joanna Leah – Leeds School of Arts
• Dr Tenley Martin and Amrinder Singh Romana – Leeds School of Arts
• Professor Sue Miller – Leeds School of Arts
• Gabrielle Russell – Leeds School of Arts
• Dr Anne Schiffer – Leeds School of Arts
• Dr Ash Ahmed - School of Built Environment, Engineering and Computing
• Dr Jamiu Dauda – School of Built Environment, Engineering and Computing
• Professor Maria Maynard – School of Health
• Dr Glen Jankowski - School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Dr Emily Zobel Marshall – School of Humanities and Social Sciences

We are excited to see the research outputs of our Equity and Inclusion funded cohort and share in their learning. The Equity and Inclusion Fund will continue in 2024 and will be announced on our intranet.