Staff profile: experiences of being disabled and trans at the University of Nottingham

Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and your current role My name is Sarah Stephenson-Hunter and I’ve been at the University of Nottingham since September 2009. I work as a Disability Adviser, part of the Accessibility Team in Specialist Services.  Throughout my time at the University I’ve always had a keen interest …

Assistive technologies and academic support

Background – how I got here I trained as an English teacher and taught abroad for several years before coming back to the UK and moving intoA-level and GCSE English teaching. Then I moved to West Wales and discovered that you can only really teach English if you can speak Welsh. I decided to train …

University of Nottingham EDI Away Day

Over the summer I attended a University wide Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Away Day at UP so thought I would share some of what was covered and my thoughts going forward. Professor Marion Walker was standing down as Associate PVC for EDI. Marion has been very positive about moving the University forward in relation …

Athena SWAN reflections- the leak in the Biosciences pipeline starts early

The STEM Pipeline is a term that is used to described the progression of women through the educational system in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and their subsequent progression to senior academic posts. The metaphor of a leaky pipeline is used to describe the drop out of women from this progression, which ultimately leads to …

Spotlight on Dov Stekel

What was your career pathway leading to your current role? My early career – between completing my PhD (1997) and having my first academic job (Lecturer at University of Birmingham in 2004) – was not conventional. After my PhD, I didn’t do a PostDoc, but got a job in R&D in a large pharmaceutical company …

Some Athena SWAN reflections

A few weeks ago, I was delighted to announce that the School of Biosciences had been awarded an Athena SWAN Silver award.  This is a recognition of our efforts to address gender inequality in our workplace since 2014. Biosciences has been an Athena SWAN award holder continuously since 2007, having oscillated between Bronze and Silver …

A muddled existence: Life as an early career teaching academic with 2 young children

For those who don’t know me, I am now 7 months into life as a teaching academic for Biotechnology, having made the switch from postdoc life, and can often be found in office C08 of BABs building. Having been inspired by others in the school to speak openly about our “whole” lives and to highlight …

Mental Health Trigger Alert

In February 2015, a few days after my son’s 14thbirthday, my brain broke. I lay on the couch sobbing. Tears falling but for no reason that I could understand. My GP gave me a diagnosis of depression. I didn’t believe him, I wasn’t sad, I was numb. I felt nothing. I couldn’t string a sentence …

Declaring a disability at work

I recently attended a workshop entitled Declaring a Disability. The session covered four main areas: The legal and philosophical framework which underpins University’s approach to supporting staff with disabilities Checking that everybody understands what constitutes disability The process for making a disability disclosure What is reasonable adjustment and how can an individual request this? The …

Spotlight on Emma Weston- Associate Professor in Food Science

On this blog we are publishing career profiles that spotlight colleagues in the School of Biosciences. This week Emma Weston, Associate Professor in Food Science, speaks about her unconventional route to her current role. . What was your career pathway leading to your current role? After finishing my Master’s degree I still did not know …