Equality and Diversity Research Spotlight and Network Events

Researchers from across the Social Sciences Division came together to share research they are undertaking covering empirical, theoretical, conceptual, epistemological and methodological issues.

Key themes included equity and diversity in education, decolonisation and co-creation of knowledge, and social, economic, political legal, cultural and institutional processes of discriminisation, minoritisation and marginalisation.

Programme for the Equality and Diversity Research Spotlight event.

Further resources from this event are available via SSO on our SSD EDI Sharepoint site.  

This event showcased various initiatives that have taken place to engage with decolonising and diversifying the curricula, and creating inclusive classrooms, at Social Science departments within the University and in wider HE contexts.  Divisional EDI Associates spoke about the lessons which could be learned from these experiences. The aim of the event was to encourage knowledge exchange between departments with a view on progressing the EDI commitments of the university through engaging in the decolonising and diversifying curriculum debates meaningfully, and creating a collaborative and inclusive academic and learning culture. The session concluded with a film of an Induction workshop held in the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID).

Programme for the Curricula and Classrooms event.

Further resources from this event are available via SSO on our SSD EDI Sharepoint site. 

Academic journals have become the focal point in recent years of calls to ‘decolonise’ the academy and ‘decentre’ knowledge production. These calls are predicated upon redressing historic inequities in journal publishing, conceived along gendered, generational, racial, geographical, and class divides, among others. This SSD EDI Researchers Network Event offered an opportunity to share and learn from experiences of reforms in academic journal publishing.

Resources from this event are available via SSO on our SSD EDI Sharepoint site.

We initiated a new series of SSD EDI Research Spotlight events to showcase the contribution of DPhil students in the Social Sciences Division to the broad field of scholarship on equality and diversity. 

Aradhana Cherupara Vadekkethil, Social Sciences Division EDI Associate and Lord and Lady McNair Early Career Fellow in Law, and Professor Nandini Gooptu, Associate Head of the Social Sciences Division for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, was joined by the following speakers:

Almas Shaikh, DPhil in Law - ‘Beyond Gender, Race, Religion and Caste: Imbuing Intersectionality in India’s Affirmative Action Framework’

Maryam Altaf, DPhil in Geography and Environment - ‘Gendered Mobilities and Platform-based Transport Services in Lahore, Pakistan’

Joana Perrone, DPhil in Area Studies - ‘The Love Story of Gender Violence: Narratives and Media Discourse around Feminicide in Contemporary Brazil’

Georgia Lin, DPhil in Education - ‘Collectives in/of Solidarity: Student Activism by Women of Colour at the University of Oxford’

Camila Pelsinger, DPhil in Criminology - ‘Beyond the Carceral State: Understanding Community Based Responses to Violence’

Professor Nandini Gooptu, Associate Head of the Social Sciences Division for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, was joined by the following speakers:

Professor Simukai Chigudu (Oxford Department of International Development) - ‘When Will We Be Free? Writing a Historical Memoir about Decolonisation and Freedom’

Professor Arathi Sriprakash (Department of Education) - ‘Reparative Futures of Education’

Professor Iyiola Solanke (Faculty of Law) - ‘A Decolonial Approach to Research and Teaching in EU Law’

Dr Aradhana Cherupara Vadekkethil (Faculty of Law) - ‘Rape Adjudication in India: A Reflection of Female Autonomy or a Reinforcement of Stereotypes’

A recording of this event is available via SSO on our SSD EDI Sharepoint site.

Research Spotlight event
Showcasing research being undertaken across the Social Sciences Division on disability.

Speakers:

Hamish Low, James Meade Professor of Economics and the Head of the Department of Economics - ‘Disability Insurance: Error Rates and Gender Differences’

Heloise Robinson, Singer Fellow in Law at Exeter College - ‘Disability as a Starting Point, and the Law’s Philosophical Foundations’

Jill Porter, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Education and formerly Professor of Education, University of Reading - ‘Understanding and Responding to the Experience of Disability’

Iyiola Solanke, Jacques Delors Professor of European Union Law at the University of Oxford - ‘Legal protection against weight discrimination?’

Showcasing research being undertaken by DPhil students across the Social Sciences Division on disability.

Urania Chiu, DPhil in Socio-Legal Studies - ‘Critically analysing discourses around mental dis/ability in criminal law: a reflection on methodology’

Hillary Chua, DPhil in Law - ‘Intellectual Disability and Intimacy – A Legal Perspective from Singapore’

Louise Nicolson, DPhil in Education - ‘Proof vs Potential: Applying Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach to investigate student experiences of UK pre-Masters programmes’

Ishani Mookherjee, DPhil in Law - ‘Interrogating the Quest for Human Perfection through Women: Regulation of Disability-Selective Abortions in India’

Across two sessions, Futures in Equitable Teacher & Schools Education, and Exploring Race, Disability & Neurodiversity in Medical and Higher Education, this is an opportunity to discover EDI-related research being undertaken by faculty and doctoral students at the Department of Education. 

Futures in Equitable Teacher & Schools Education 
  
Zaiba Patel, DPhil in Education 
‘Decolonising the Secondary School History Curriculum’. 

Rachel Robinson, DPhil in Education 
‘The Black and Minority Ethnic Experience of Teacher Education’ 
  
Nadia Talukdar, DPhil in Education 
‘An Intersectional Exploration of the Experiences of Female Muslim Trainee Teachers in Primary Initial Teacher Training Education in England’ 
  

Exploring Race, Disability & Neurodiversity in Medical and Higher Education 
  
Ben Balogun-Ojuri, DPhil in Education 
‘Differential Attainment of Black British Doctors in BAME/BME Representation of Very Senior Management (VSM) in the NHS: Individual Perceptions and Implications at Micro Level.’ 
  
Dr Xin Xu, Departmental Lecturer in Higher/Tertiary Education, and Georgia Lin, DPhil in Education 
‘Neurodivergent Education for Students, Teaching & Learning (NESTL) project.’ 
  
Dr Gbemisola David-West, Obstetrics and Gynaecology Registrar & Clinical Teaching Fellow 
‘Understanding the Postgraduate Training Experiences of Black doctors: A Study of Resilience.’ 

A recording of this event is available via SSO on our SSD EDI Sharepoint site.

This event showcases research undertaken by faculty and doctoral students at the Faculty of Law. 

Anti-discrimination Law: A Conversation between Legal Theory and EDI Practice

How does anti-discrimination law engage with EDI practice and vice versa? Does EDI have any connection with legal theory in this field of law? What are the factors that enable this conversation or conversely, hinder it? Would a closer connection be helpful to the goals of either?

This SSD EDI workshop focuses on these questions and seeks to answer them through examination of specific aspects of discrimination law in education, employment and the environment.

Discrimination and EDI in Education

Rawletta Barrow (DPhil in Law Candidate) and Helen Mountfield KC (Principal of Mansfield College, Barrister) 

Intersectional Discrimination and EDI in Education

Almas Shaikh (DPhil in Law Candidate) and Prof Sandy Fredman, FBA, KC (hon.)  (Professor of the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the United States)

Caste Discrimination and EDI in Environmental law 

Bhimraj Muthu (DPhil in Law Candidate) and Prof Liz Fisher (Professor of Environmental Law)

Disability Discrimination and EDI in Employment

Dr. Heloise Robinson (Singer Fellow in Law) and Keira Riddy (Associate Barrister for Browne Jacobson) 

A recording of this event will soon be available via SSO on our SSD EDI Sharepoint site.