About the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee works towards creating an inclusive and supportive environment for all staff in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee is comprised over several workstreams, each one focussing on a different area of equality and inclusion within the Faculty. On this page, you can find details of each or our current workstreams and their projects.
Race Equality workstream
We are in the process of organising a short series of talks by well-known speakers on anti-racism in higher education. The talks will be open to both staff and students, and will be organised in co-ordination with departments.
We are developing a very concise resource that departments can use to inform work on decolonising the curriculum. There is a great deal of material on this topic, so we plan to develop something that represents an accessible and helpful 'first step' for departments.
Along the same lines, we are looking at developing a concise resource on anti-racism in the classroom. Again, there is some very useful recent material on this subject and we'd like to create a helpful 'first step' for teams that need to engage with it.
Additionally, we are currently collecting evidence of the international PhD student experience, as part of our commitment to ensuring that our international student experience matches that of our home students.
- Race Equality at the University of Sheffield
- University of Sheffield Race Equality Strategy and Action Plan
Disability workstream
The Disability workstream works to connect staff from all departments who support disabled students. Currently, we are working with Digital Learning colleagues to create short videos on how staff can improve accessibility of teaching tools and materials for disabled students. We are also putting together a funding bid to hire a student researcher, who will work on a student engagement project.
Diversity in the Workforce workstream
We are currently reviewing findings of a recruitment and selection study undertaken in selected Arts and Humanities departments, and identifying any appropriate actions.
We are continuing the review of standard wording in ATJs to ensure the Faculty attracts a more diverse pool of applicants, as well as developing materials and guidance to fully test competency and commitment to EDI during the recruitment process.
Additionally, we are working to produce a Faculty of Arts and Humanities Recruitment Handbook. The aim of this handbook is to ensure best practice is consistently applied across the Faculty for recruitment and selection activity.
- Video: Dr Jules Holroyd (Department of Philosophy) discusses implicit bias in the context of race equality with Dr Tony Williams (School of Education)
Gender Equality workstream
A gender inclusion policy has been developed and rolled out across the faculty in the past couple of years. The policy sets out the commitment of departments to striving for trans inclusivity, and sets out steps that will be taken to this effect. The gender workstream continues to review and refine these policies in light of best practices.
A report on experiences of parental leave and how policy and practice can be improved is currently underway, and will be finalised in the spring of 2021. The aim is that this can provide clear direction to HR and departments with respect to how to improve formal and informal practice surrounding parental leave.
A scoping project into work that is needed to address what the faculty can do to support members of staff as they go through the menopause is also underway, to complete in 2021.