Professor Chris Jackson speaking at our panel with Helen WollastonThank you for coming
We were delighted to welcome over 100 members of the Imperial community on 5 February for Engagement Day 2020 to discuss the role of societal engagement in equality, diversity and inclusion in STEM.
Engagement Day is an opportunity for staff from across the College to share their knowledge and experiences of all things societal engagement. Featuring insightful workshops, panels, and talks, our debut event was a great success in 2018 and in 2020 we focussed on equality, diversity and inclusion in STEM.
"[It was] super inspiring to see the great variety of innovative engagement within different teams."
Engagement Day 2020
The second Imperial Engagement Day took place on 5 February. This year, we focussed on equality, diversity and inclusion asking the questions:
How do we broaden access and increase diversity in STEM?
How can we empower audiences from all backgrounds to engage with STEM?
Engagement Day 2020 aimed to stimulate discussion about the role of societal engagement in empowering communities, tackling inequalities and increasing diversity amongst those who shape research.
Keynote: Claire Ainsley (Executive Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) leads JRF’s strategy to inspire action and change to solve UK poverty. She is author of ‘The New Working Class: how to win hearts, minds and votes,’ and a trustee of Involve, the public participation charity.
Lightning Talks: Five-minute case study presentations, providing inspiration for how engagement can empower diverse groups.
Panel Discussion: Empowering diverse communities in STEM - Are we making progress? Decision-makers will discuss our progress so far to embed equality, diversity and inclusion within our work. Where are we now and where do we want to be?
Food: An excellent afternoon tea complete with sandwiches, scones, cakes and the necessary caffeinated beverages to keep you perky.
Networking with colleagues from across the College interested in public engagement, with an exhibit featuring stalls from Makerspace, Imperial 600 and Imperial As One.
Workshops: Discuss big questions and develop your thinking with speakers and facilitators from within and outside the College. Select one of the five options we have available.
Workshop themes:
Inclusive Public Engagement Programming Explore different strategies to embed diversity within public engagement programming. How can we represent diversity in a meaningful way in the events and activities we run?
Co-creation and co-production - what does it all mean? Where do we start in the co-creation of research and public engagement, and what does good practice look like? How can we invite and value varied forms of knowledge and expertise such as lived experience and build trust and respectful partnerships.
Accessibility in practice Explore how to anticipate and accommodate the access needs of engagement participants, visitors, students and staff. What should we be considering in terms of physical access to spaces and content, and the design and facilitation of our activities, to ensure all are able to participate? Find out what support, resources and guidance is available.
Place-based engagement What are the opportunities and challenges with engagement focused on a particular place or location? How can focusing on a defined geographical area lead to longer-term and sustained change? Discuss and gain inspiration from examples of community and place-based engagement happening around and beyond our campuses.
What does success look like? How do we understand and evidence the difference we are making through public engagement? What evaluation methods should we be using when we aim for our engagement to empower communities?
The second Imperial Engagement Day took place on 5 February. This year, we focussed on equality, diversity and inclusion asking the questions: