Hopes for the future
Shifting the Lens
“Everyone in our Imperial community has a responsibility to make sure if we see inappropriate behaviour, we speak up.”
Hollie, Juproop, Paula and Tiffany discuss their hopes for the future, for themselves, Imperial and beyond as part of this year’s Shifting the Lens series.
“No one is born hateful, you’ve got to learn about it as a young person.”
Education is key to a more tolerant society where diversity is embraced.
Tiffany
Senior Teaching Fellow in Educational Development, Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship
I’m learning how to deal with microaggression. I think a lot of people, like me, don’t know how to deal with it or whether we can challenge people about it. I think I’m quite fortunate that I don’t encounter it often, but it has happened.
Microaggression can happen through language or behaviour – those little things can really hurt people. Everyone in our Imperial community has a responsibility to ensure that if we see inappropriate behaviour, we speak up.
I’d like to see support such as guides, videos or role-play workshops, that demonstrate how to effectively address microaggression. I think we can be more creative in how we support people to really visualise what actions to take when experiencing or witnessing it.
One great aspect of Imperial is that we have many funding opportunities for EDI-related initiatives. The SIDUS project I worked on was funded by Imperial’s President’s Excellence Fund for Learning and Teaching Innovation. We also have the EDI Seed Fund for this area. It’s great to have such support from the College.
We should also lead by example and share resources with other institutions to create a ripple effect. Collaborating with other stakeholders is crucial for broadening our perspectives on other EDI issues that need to be addressed in higher education.
Hollie
Undergraduate, Department of Life Sciences
Something that I do think needs to change is around the telling of our history. British history certainly includes the Commonwealth, and you think that you’d learn much more about the Commonwealth and its complexity at school – but the reality is, most of it is White British history. And they’re always painted as the good guys. However, we know that’s not true, and that the Commonwealth countries, and many more, are a crucial part of our history and our community.
My grandparents were part of the Windrush generation, who were invited over from the Caribbean in the mid 20th century. They came over from Jamaica, and as the Windrush scandal has developed in recent years, the Windrush stories have been picked up more, but not nearly enough. I think there’s still a lack of recognition of these communities, of their role in British life, society and culture, and even of the scandal now. It’s also part of a bigger idea of immigration and the perception of it as a bad thing.
No one is born hateful, you’ve got to learn about it as a young person. If we learn more about different cultures at school and start it from a young age, I think that people will grow up to be a lot more tolerant, a lot more open and welcoming, which is what we really truly need. We just have so much to gain.
Paula
Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Medicine
Latin America experienced a very complex colonisation, which still permeates the feelings of the people across many different countries alongside a strong sense of injustice and unfairness. Today, Latin America is vibrant and has a positive energetic culture, but there is a lot of pain, and poverty, and people struggling to access basic necessities, such as clean drinking water. Other countries have gone through processes with their colonisers but the same hasn’t happened with Spain or Portugal in Latin America. I think an important starting point would be to teach the next generations a more comprehensive view of colonisation in school and bring it out into the light, rather than trying to ignore it.
Let’s talk about it, let’s find a way out together and build something beautiful from it, considering all the beautiful qualities and all the beauty that there is in Latin America.
“Being at Imperial, I’ve seen how it is to feel like I belong, and hopefully I’ll find that again.”
As we reach the end of this year’s Shifting the Lens series, Juproop, Paula and Tiffany share their hopes and dreams for the future for them personally, professionally, for Imperial and beyond.
Paula
I’m loving my role and working with students and seeing how they develop as scientists. I’m learning how to teach in a different environment, and I’m teaching Pharmacology and guiding research projects through the lab-based module Lab Pod 2, which are topics and areas I really enjoy teaching. I would definitely like to continue my roots in research and here at Imperial there are opportunities to guide these type of research projects.
I’ve continued exploring the public and patient involvement that I was doing in my previous role with the Francis Crick. Engaging with the Imperial community beyond just my role is something I want to continue. Recently I’ve been in contact with the International Relations team to build relationships between Imperial and Colombia – for example, to assist with new scholarship opportunities.
I’m also interested in how we engage the wider community. The networks at Imperial are amazing, it would be great to see more people joining them. Imperial is so culturally diverse and all staff should have a basic level of cultural awareness. It would be great to see a strategy that permeates and engages the whole community.
Juproop
I will be honest and say I have not completely thought through my hopes for the future. In the short term, I want to finish my exams. By the end of my four years, I want to graduate with a with a good degree classification and hopefully look upon Imperial with fond memories. Career wise, I am not sure, I’m still figuring that out. I do know that I want to carry on doing ChemEngWeekly and spreading awareness of chemical engineering, even if I do not end up working in chemical engineering. It is something that is close to my heart. It helps me develop myself, but ultimately it helps students get the advice and information they need to get to university.
In the longer term, I would like to get more involved in things that have a more meaningful impact. ChemEngWeekly is very contained to just me, my camera in my bedroom and YouTube. But I would like to do something that has a bit more of a wider social impact. Ultimately, I think the process is more about enjoying the journey and not getting too caught up in where you are going.
Tiffany
I've always been curious about many things and try to find out the reasons why things happen in a certain way. We need to continue to be critical, reflect on things that happened and not be afraid to challenge the status quo.
People often tend to blame themselves and experience imposter feelings. They might think, ‘I'm not good enough to be here at Imperial’ or ‘I don't belong here’. However. if we approach this issue from an EDI perspective, we realise that these thoughts are often influenced by the dominant discourse and the environment we find ourselves in. We published a paper on this, entitled ‘Deindividualising Imposter Syndrome: Imposter Work among Marginalised STEMM Undergraduates in the UK’. Whether it’s the people we interact with or the environment we are in, they can make you think you’re not good enough. This is often closely linked to structural inequality.
I hope to continue with my passion for fostering an inclusive, diverse community for all students and staff. Currently, much of my work is focused on students, but many issues can equally be applied to staff members, so maybe in the future I can engage with staff and learn about their experiences.
Hollie
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is the working world, as this summer I’m doing an internship, and this time next year I’ll be properly in the working world, going through recruitment processes. It is becoming increasingly apparent that representation is something important to me. It’s about being wise to ‘diversity hires’, thinking about quotas, and whether an organisation is hiring people for what they look like rather than what they bring to an organisation. It’s also about those higher up and looking to see if there is diversity at the upper levels. Am I going to be wheeled out for a photoshoot or for marketing and then I’ve done what they need me for? There are also questions at Imperial, for example with Professorships : what are the barriers to Black people and people of colour progressing upwards?
For those from minoritised communities and backgrounds, it can be harder to get a foot in the door. Recently I’ve joined the Alumni Network for Insight2Uni, which has enabled me to connect with mentors across the UK, from different cultures and different ethnic backgrounds. It is mainly aimed at Black heritage students like me and has been a great way to meet a network of people. Where opportunities can be lacking for some people, having a connection can be really beneficial.
Thinking about entering the corporate world feels in some ways like going back to the position I was in when I was younger. Coming to Imperial, I’ve felt so welcome here, but I’ll be going into spaces where I might be the only person in the room that looks like me. Sitting in interview waiting rooms, that has already been the case, and I have to resign myself to that possibility, and accept it, but still know it’s not right. I have to get in the right mental space where I may already be on the back foot because of my ethnicity, but I have to have a mindset of ‘okay, I’m going to show them I have everything they could possibly want’. I hope that I’ll end up in an inclusive company where I don’t have to feel that. Being at Imperial, I’ve seen how it is to feel like I belong, with a sense of openness, and hopefully I’ll find that again.
Hear Juproop, Hollie, Paula and Tiffany talk more about their hopes for the future.
Photography by Jason Alden.
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