Author: Sarah Mander (Page 3 of 8)

Diversity Matters

October 17, 2019 / Sarah Mander

As Director of Diversity and Inclusion at King’s, I am constantly advocating for the benefits of diversity, the value-added of attracting a demographic mix of staff and students, and how important it is to create a welcoming and supportive environment where everyone can contribute.

But I’ll let you into a little industry secret…. managing diverse teams and organisations is HARD.

Yes, diversity is an asset. There is a lot of evidence that diverse teams tend to outperform homogenous teams and fuel creative thinking and problem-solving. Yes, there is also a strong business case for diversity and inclusion. Yes, there is a huge benefit for innovation. Research has consistently shown that the more diverse your teams are, the more innovative you are. Diversity is important for an organisation to be able to relate to the service users– the diversity (in our case) of students needs to be reflected in the diversity of our employees.

Diversity produces its own set of challenges. It is hard work for the exact reason that makes it an asset – it is the bringing together of multiple, diverse perspectives. It helps us consider issues from different angles, but can also be a trigger for debate, argument, and disagreement.

I have been thinking about this a lot as we have been developing the D&I function at King’s. We have recruited a broad cross-section of talented individuals. To develop the function, we have been engaging across the university to understand the various needs, priorities and ways of working. To build a truly effective function, my colleagues and I have spent a significant amount of time looking at, and understanding, what is currently going on across King’s and then evaluating that against what we as a university would like to. I knew it was important to understand what the challenge is and then intervene strategically. We have recently launched our newly devised function.

This, in practice, has really tested all my professional skills. How on earth do we make progress while listening to so many different points of view? How do we reach one decision when there are what seem like infinite conflicting viewpoints? How do we address individual feelings, hopes and fears versus an organisational imperative? How do we do all that whilst ensuring that individuals feel valued and listened to?

IT’S HARD! And it takes continual effort and conscientiousness. Some days I feel like it would just be so much easier if everyone would just agree with me – but then I remind myself that if we all agreed, we would not see all the perspectives that come from diverse life experiences and the world we live in requires us to be far more agile than that.

These last few months I have been taking my own medicine – and no doubt haven’t always got it right. I have a genuine desire and goal to try hard and always self-examine and enable others to tell me what they think. One of the ways I did this recently was via seeking 360. It was tremendously eye-opening to read how others perceive and receive me and I’ll be honest, it took me a while to reconcile myself with the feedback. It was great to hear about some of my strengths and the positive impact I’ve had. It gave me pause for thought to realise how much I need to improve in some areas. In fact, some of the words made me want to cry, but that’s what you get when you ask people to tell you the truth and they trust you enough to listen to it.

I can say with confidence and experience that diversity brings with it the prospect of conflict. In an organisation like King’s, an inclusive mindset and embracing diversity go far beyond recruitment practices. We need to change the norms in our everyday practices and culture to welcome and include individuals with different backgrounds, expectations, and working styles. To get that inclusive mindset we need to step up our individual and organisational leadership and management capability. What do I mean by that? Well, for me it means giving myself space to prepare and plan, but also think and reflect and creating that space for others to do so too. Being able to admit when I am unsure, or don’t know, have been wrong or when things haven’t gone as I expected. These are all practices that contribute towards an inclusive work environment, and require careful thought and consideration each and every day.

#BHM2019: Why uncovering black history at King’s is vital

October 4, 2019 / Sarah Mander

Activist and journalist Marc Wadsworth on his work celebrating unsung heroes.

We learnt about white Crimean war heroine Florence Nightingale at school. But the hidden history of her black contemporary, Jamaican-born nurse Mary Seacole, who was just as noteworthy, had to be unearthed by black scholars. A statue of Seacole was put up outside St Thomas’ Hospital after years of campaigning.

There are many such untold stories. I’ve tried to tell a couple of them. In 1998 my biography of Indian Shapurji Saklatvala, a communist who became Labour MP for Battersea North in 1922, was published. Then I made two films about volunteers from the Caribbean who fought in the Second World War. My late Jamaican father was one of them.

First was the documentary Divided by Race, United in War and Peace, which got a cinema screening in 2014. Then, with the BBC, I made Fighting for King and Empire: Britain’s Caribbean Heroes. It has been broadcast half a dozen times, including last month.

In 2011, I took a master’s in contemporary British history at King’s as a mature student, breaking new ground as the first to get on a course at the university using a scheme for people without an undergraduate degree. It’s called Accreditation of Prior Learning. I wish King’s would trumpet its existence, so more people like me could be students and benefit from our world-class university.

I did a guest lecture in the history department, based on my dissertation, The Rise and Fall of the Labour Party Black Sections 1983-1990, for which I got a distinction. The lecture was a privilege rarely afforded to alumni.

My book, Comrade Sak, Shapurji Saklatvala MP, a political biography, was part of the portfolio of work I put to professors to get accepted onto the course.

There is activism going on to redress the lack of diversity in lessons. For instance, the Why is my curriculum white? campaign that is to be applauded. It ‘aims to decolonise and critically challenge course content and perspectives offered through the accepted Western white canon of knowledge’.

Black students and scholars mustn’t just whinge about the absence of black history in lessons, and the under-representation of teachers who look like us, they must do something about it.

Black History Month gives us a useful annual platform, even though many of us believe the subject should be promoted all year round.

I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity by the Race Equality Network at King’s to speak about a hidden history; that of Jamaican-born Dr Harold Moody, who graduated from the university in 1910, finishing top of the class.

No one I spoke with at King’s knew about Moody. He was affectionately known as ‘the black doctor’ in Peckham, south London, where he practiced as a highly respected GP, way before the NHS. A pioneer, Moody founded Britain’s first civil rights movement, the League of Coloured Peoples, in 1931. I proudly spoke at the unveiling of a plaque commemorating him earlier this year.

The long-overdue Dr Harold Moody, a King’s College hidden history reclaimed event will be in Bush House Lecture Theatre 2 BH (S) 4.04, the Strand, starting at 6.15pm on 23 October. It includes a drinks reception and is free to attend.

I hope you’ll spread the word and come along.

#BHM2019: You Have No Idea What I’m Capable Of

October 4, 2019 / Sarah Mander

So, it’s Black History Month (Let’s not get into the fact that having only one month is something that we’re supposed to be grateful for!).

I can get a bit jaded. I recently spoke at a conference full of public servants – police, firefighters, healthcare workers, etc. The speakers were dynamic, informed and frankly great. However, I left a bit depressed. I had heard nothing new or nothing I didn’t already know, and I caught myself in my own arrogance. It’s easy in my job to get tied up in the day to day – I know we can only ‘fix diversity’ if we fix systems and processes, but it can make you forget why you do it in the first place.

On the way home from the conference I was pondering why we still needed to repeat these things. How do people not just know them? I remembered what had ‘activated’ me, and I know it was becoming empowered. As regular readers know, I am a TV addict, particularly, a Shonda Rhimes addict. Now I was brought up on the Eli Pope philosophy of “you must be twice as good as them to get half of what they have”.

As I continued to educate myself, I found that a text that had a huge impact on me was Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain. This text helped me understand how and why my parents raised me as they did and how we all reacted to a variety of social scenarios we had no control of.

My philosophy as I got older however, became more Olivia Pope (and yes, of course, I do imagine myself as her – when I was growing up there were next to no black female TV characters let alone leads), who said: “We know who we are, who we will always be, and we have a choice, we can hide in the shadows, or we can stand in the light”.

That education led me to grow and recognise who I am and what my strengths are. I was able to see the different types of oppression I had been letting rule my life – from society’s expectations and norms, to my parents’, and to my own internalised ones. It led me to decide to do something, to reach my potential, and to help remove the barriers that prevent others from doing so.

I was particularly reminded of this when I caught the last day of Get Up, Stand Up, at Somerset House. It described itself as ‘a major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond. Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of 110 interdisciplinary artists are showcasing their work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.’

The whole exhibition was a great mix of provocation, reminiscing and empowerment through art, and it really spoke to me. It was also interesting to me when I went to find resources or information about this amazing man, Horace Ové, next to nothing was available! I would highly recommend these podcasts – they will make particularly good listening this Black History Month.

Anyway, back to the conference and my jadedness. What I remembered is, that’s the work and that’s the journey. We don’t learn about all of our histories and contributions consistently, and so our diversity issues in the workforce and in Higher Education persist. These conferences ignite new sparks for some and lead others to empowerment and to take action. Black History Month does the same. It enables celebration, reflection, activism and progress. I am glad that for my children, they will not, like me, grow up unknowingly believing that Black History doesn’t exist.

As ever, there are many events across the month being held across King’s, as well as London.

#BHM2019: History in the Making

October 3, 2019 / Sarah Mander

As part of our Black History Month blog series, Ph.D. student, Michael Bankole writes for us about the often-overlooked Black British political history.

1987 was a momentous year in black British history. Black History Month was first celebrated in the UK in 1987, with its main purpose to recognise the contributions made by black people in Britain and counter misrepresentations of black history. Since then, Black History Month has successfully brought to the fore some overlooked aspects of black British history.

1987 was also seminal year for the political representation of black people in the UK. Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant became the first three black Members of Parliament.

All three of the black MPs elected to Parliament in 1987 played an active role in challenging racism. Bernie Grant, who sadly passed away in 2000, established the Parliamentary Black Caucus, which sought to advance the interests of ethnic minorities. Grant sought to redress racism both in Britain and Europe, as he also founded the Standing Conference on Racism in Europe. Paul Boateng played an active role in challenging racism within the police service. Remarkably, Diane Abbott still serves as an MP today. She remains a vocal champion of the rights and interests of black and minority ethnic citizens in the UK.

Progress in the elections immediately following 1987 was incremental, however the 2010, 2015, and 2017 General Elections saw more substantial increases in the number of ethnic minority MPs. Following the 2017 General Election, ethnic minorities now constitute 8 per cent of the MPs in the House of Commons. According to the most recent British Census in 2011, ethnic minorities account for 13 per cent of the British population, therefore there is still room for improvement in order to achieve perfect representation. Nevertheless, my research focuses on the post-2017 period because Parliament now more closely resembles the general population than ever before.

My doctoral research focuses on what ethnic minority MPs do once they are elected. While ethnic minority MPs currently hold two of the four Great Offices of State, most of the current cohort are backbenchers. This means that they have limited direct oversight or influence on public policy. I therefore examine the parliamentary questions asked by ethnic minority MPs – both written and oral – in order to ascertain whether or not they use these questions to challenge racism. I will also conduct interviews with a range of ethnic minority MPs in order to gain direct insights from them about their roles.

It is important that ethnic minority MPs use the platform they are given to challenge racism because racism affects the lives of ethnic minorities in Britain, regardless of their class or status. Britain’s imperial and colonial history led to the entrenchment of racial hierarchies; this means that society is structured to promote racial inequalities.

Central to the British approach to racism is the desire to root out the extremists or ‘bad apples‘ that are framed as the main perpetrators of racism. However, focusing on flagrant, individual manifestations of racism overlooks the fact that racism is systematic and pervasive across institutions in Britain. The Race Disparity Audit commissioned by the government in 2017 highlights some of the problems faced by minorities across various areas of British life. Some of their key findings include:

16% of Black households were in found to be living in persistent poverty.
Black ethnic groups were found to be disproportionately likely to live in the most deprived neighbourhoods.
Approximately 1 in 10 adults from a Black, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Mixed background were found to be unemployed.

Remedying institutional racism starts with the recognition that it is a big problem. There is limited discussion or engagement with institutional racism in the UK. MPs can play a role in reshaping our understanding of racism by challenging its institutional nature.

By undertaking a PhD, I hope to forge a career in academia. Academia, much like Parliament, is overwhelmingly white. A delve into some of the statistics makes for harrowing reading. Leading Routes, an initiative aimed at increasing the number of black academics, report that of the 19,000 professors in the UK, fewer than 150 are black. The Equality in Higher Education 2018 Report found that only 6.7% of academic staff identified as black or minority ethnic.

These statistics are disheartening for black students attempting to scale the rungs of academia, however we can take some inspiration from trialblazers like Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng, and Bernie Grant who broke down barriers to make history. Their journeys to Parliament were far from straightforward, but provide real hope for other black people attempting to break barriers across various sectors of society.

We can also take courage and inspiration from the succinct, yet powerful words of Professor Marcia Wilson, one of the few black female professors in Britain: Academia needs you. Higher Education needs more people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds in order to ensure a diversity of perspectives and opinions. The legitimacy of academia is undermined by its lack of diversity. There is a real need to remove the barriers to academia for black and minority ethnic citizens. Academia will be a better place for it.

#BHM2019: Four Stubborn Issues

October 3, 2019 / Sarah Mander

Talah Anderson has joined the team as one of the new Diversity & Inclusion Project Interns. As part of their induction, we’ve asked them to write a blog post about something important to them.

It is an exciting time to join the Diversity & Inclusion team at King’s, given that the function is presently expanding in attempt to better combat structural inequality in the University and its faculties. In the light of its recent re-application to the Race Equality Charter Mark, King’s has identified four key obstacles to bringing about race equality across the University.

In this blog post, I intend to review these so-called “stubborn issues” and reflect on their significance, as well as restate, so as to witness, King’s’ action plan to bring about “an inclusive environment where all individuals are valued and able to succeed”, a fundamental tenet of King’s Strategic Vision 2029.

The first stubborn issue identified in the report is the extreme lack of ethnic diversity among King’s’ senior leaders. According to King’s self-assessment, just 8% of King’s professors belong to Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups – and only 0.6% of those UK BME professors are Black. These figures unfortunately do compare to national trends. Advance HE’s Equality in higher education: staff statistical report 2018 reveals that just 9.3% of UK professors are BME, while only 0.4% are Black. There is also an extreme lack of ethnic diversity among King’s’ senior professional services staff. Just 6.8% of King’s most senior professional services staff are BME, a figure only fractionally better than the national average of 4.5%.

The second stubborn issue identified in the report is the widespread perception among King’s students and staff that the University does not talk about race and racism or fails to do so with appropriate sensitivity. According to King’s’ self-assessment, a third of BME students and just under a third of BME staff feel they lack opportunities to discuss race at the University. On the occasions that these discussions have taken place, BME students and staff report being made to feel uncomfortable due to having been met with defensive and/or emotional reactions, which ultimately silence and undermine their experiences.

The third stubborn issue identified in the report is the prevalence of “microaggressions”; implicit forms of racism (whether conscious or unconscious) across King’s campuses. Microaggressions, e.g., a lecturer never making the effort to pronounce a student’s name correctly; a student claiming that they never “see” colour, convey hidden messages (e.g., disregard for “foreign” identities; denial of racism) and so signpost racist subtexts: that is, that BME students and staff do not belong at King’s. Microaggressions negatively impact King’s BME staff and student retention and, in turn, the University’s BME talent pipeline.

The fourth stubborn issue identified in the report is the attainment gap at King’s. Differential outcomes vary between faculties at the University, but BME students are 4% less likely to achieve a first or 2:1 than their white peers. Black students are significantly less likely to achieve a first-class degree than any other student group. Differential attainment then goes on to disadvantage BME students in postgraduate education and in the labour market. Indeed, as a result of the aforementioned structural inequalities, BME cohorts are less likely to enter graduate employment and continue on to postgraduate study when compared to their white peers.

Taking a broad view of these issues, it seems apt to stress their interconnectedness. Of course, an institution with few BME employees in senior management positions is less likely to be steered by the knowledge and experiences of BME people, making it less likely for discussions involving race and racism to be facilitated appropriately, if at all. If an institution fails to facilitate effective, open dialogue with its staff and students (where the institution’s primary role is to listen), institutional cultures that normalise microaggressions cannot be corrected and will instead be perpetuated, compromising King’s commitment to creating an “inclusive environment where all individuals are valued and able to succeed” as part of Vision 2029, in appreciation of, and yet still despite, race.

In response to these Stubborn Issues, King’s has developed a four-year strategic plan, which includes the following flagship actions:

Establishing King’s first Race Equality Board to govern our progress towards race equity
Conducting a comprehensive review of King’s staff recruitment and selection processes
The creation of a ring-fenced fund to support the development and progression of BME talent
Researching King’s history with race and racism – uncovering hidden and erased contributions of BME people to our institution and disciplines
Detailed research and actions to identify, track, and respond to micro-aggressions at King’s

#BHM2019: It’s not Black and White

October 1, 2019 / Sarah Mander

Tyler John has joined the team as one of the new Diversity and Inclusion Project Interns. As part of their induction, we’ve asked them to write a blog post about something important to them.

As October brings a celebration of Black History Month, I thought I would use this digital canvas to paint a picture of what Blackness and being ‘Black’ means to me.

Being Black is historically unchartered territory for me, as a white-passing, mixed-race person. My dad is a black man, whose heritage is both white British and Black Caribbean, and my mum is 100% White British. This roughly means that I am 75% White British, and 25% Black Caribbean – as it happens, using percentages to define one’s identity is relatively impossible!

Growing up in a mixed-race family, I have been surrounded by People of Colour my entire life. As a child, being Black meant nothing more to me than having brown or black skin, and as a result, Blackness was something I couldn’t experience or get involved in. Though I have two brothers with the exact same racial makeup as myself, my white skin (compared to their brown skin), alienated me from the identity they were able to share with the rest of my family – they were Black and I was white.

Though I am older and, one could say, wiser now, the importance of visible race is still so pervasive to my understanding of Blackness. How could it not be, when the colour of one’s skin has huge implications for their everyday experience? Black men are consistently the most likely demographic to have a fatal encounter with the police (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019), and black women earn on average 40% less than white men do (Lean In, 2019). The fact is, my white skin means I will never experience these disadvantages, and this is a privilege that cannot be ignored. However, does it make me any less Black?

Yes, and no. Having darker skin is a huge factor in the lived experiences of People of Colour, affecting how you exist and move through the world, and because of the colour of my skin, there are experiences, sentiments and feelings inherent to being Black that I can never share. However, as I have now learned, and as I continue to try and teach myself, being Black is so much more than the colour of one’s skin.

To me, being Black is a multi-dimensional and intersectional experience. It exists in the places we live, the food we eat, the music we listen to, the art we consume, the clothes we wear, the history we have lived through, and ultimately, how we engage with these things. Though I may have been one of the only white-skinned people in my family, I’ve spent enough summers making roti with my Granddad and listening to soca at family parties to understand that being Black doesn’t solely reside in the way we look, but also in the way we live our lives.

This is a continuing journey for me as an adult. At every opportunity, I find myself desperately keen to absorb things outside of the white-centric cultural hegemony and expose myself to things that will not only diversify my understanding of race but too, my understanding of my own racial experience. I am a gay, mixed-race, working-class person, and every day, I discover something new about what this means. Will I ever have a perfect understanding of myself and the things that make me who I am? No, probably not, but I’m so excited to explore as much as I possibly can.

My Friend Margaret Matthews

September 24, 2019 / Sarah Mander

I received some sad news recently. My friend, mentor and co-opted mum, Margaret Matthews, died. Sadly, I hadn’t seen her for some years, but we still exchanged messages at Christmas. Her death has made me look back over my working life and think about the personal and lasting impact of our colleagues.

At 15, I started as a ‘Saturday girl’ in the North Finchley branch of Boots the Chemist. In those days a weekend job in a top name high street store was a real get. I had been working on a market stall from 13. Boots was a step up: I got a uniform, I had set hours, defined lunch and tea breaks, paid annual leave, training and best of all, I got a staff discount – something that my whole family loved. I worked there on and off for 7 years, Saturdays and holidays. I left after graduation to pursue my career in the Civil Service. Margaret was there before me and worked on for many years after I left.

I loved working at Boots. I gained experience doing a whole variety of things: stock control, customer service, technical pharmacy stuff, beauty, photographic and technology experience AND people management – or how to work with others.

I credit this role with building my self-confidence. From day-to-day I was helping different types of people solve problems for their diverse needs. From finding what they need; helping them work out what medication is best for themselves, their child or their parent; to choosing a lipstick or a camera; through explaining we didn’t have something or, even worse, that we were no longer stocking something or (total disaster) it was no longer being made; and then putting in the effort to find a particular item in the stock room or another store. It was real life experience of thinking on your feet and maintaining a calm and friendly demeanour. Plus, let’s not forget, it gave me about £80 a month to do stuff, which as a teenager gave me real independence.

The customers were diverse, covering every kind of social demographic – pretty much everyone needs sanitary hygiene products or headache tablets at some point. That too gave me access and exposure to things outside of my limited frame of reference.

What I didn’t recognise at the time, and maybe only recognised this week, was how I formed relationships with all kinds of people on an equal footing. Most of the staff in Boots were women (including, for most of my time, the pharmacist and store manager – I was too young and under informed to realise that was unusual). Most of the team were much older than me. For most of them this was the job that paid for their lives. On Saturdays a cohort of us younger or more transient people working for ‘pocket money’ or to get by whilst at college or university. Yet, despite these very different motivations it was an inclusive environment. There wasn’t a divide between the people whose everyday life was working there and had been for a long time, who had all sorts of pressures – putting food on a family table, managing kids, caring for relatives and or studying – and people like me, who just rocked up on a Saturday.

I would guess that Margaret was in her 40s when we met. (I think it’s telling that I don’t know, as our relative ages really didn’t matter.) She worked in Boots part-time and had done for a number of years working around her family commitments. Why was she there? What were hopes and dreams and ambitions? Did I ever know? Did I ever ask? I did know she had been married (and remarried). She had a family and her pride in her grown up (compared to me) son and daughter shone through. I knew where they lived, the trials and tribulations of their lives from her perspective, as well as seeing her unending devotion to them.

What I didn’t have enough experience to know was how generous she was in sharing about her life. How she always took me seriously and treated me as an equal despite me being so much younger and less capable. She was respectful, caring and interested in me as a person and as a colleague. My nearly 50-year-old self has a much deeper understanding than my teen self and I now know she would have been carrying so many more worries and cares than me, but I was too young, selfish and inexperienced to even consider or think about those.

I am writing this as a tribute to her but also to get us all to think about the people in our lives. Each of us has a life story and a life outside of work. We don’t always (I certainly don’t) take the time to think, or even think to think about that. I truly feel Margaret was one of the people that shaped my values and attitude: I was treated with respect and dignity; I was treated as if I was worthwhile and had something to offer – and that’s something I’ve taken on as my benchmark I’ve had many jobs since where that wasn’t the case and I know now what a fortunate first experience that was.

My thoughts are with her family and I will attend her funeral in early October, but Margaret Matthews made a big difference to my life and I wanted to say that to a wider audience.

Passports, questions, flags and a cheery welcome – my day within Early Enrolment

September 13, 2019 / Sarah Mander

In the lead up to Welcome Week, D&I Consultant Alison Devlin took a day out to volunteer on the university frontlines, supporting student enrolment and helping students get their first taste of King’s and their ID cards.

I volunteered for my first assisting in student enrolments this week and what a truly amazing and worthwhile experience it was. In large bureaucratic organisations it’s always beneficial for backroom corporate staff to get ‘back to the floor’ to reconnect with the service users and this was no exception.

After just 30 minutes training on using the student records system (SITS) to verify the students’ identity and learning how to produce an encoded ID badge from the Gallagher software, I wasn’t sure if I was safe to be let loose on the systems. My worries were unfounded though, as us volunteers had been given very controlled access rights and the SED staff were available as our ‘supervisors’ and were at our side the moment that we waved our red flag. Yes, we had flags, one to summon the supervisor and a green one to indicate to the student ambassador to send the next student forward. I think Primark’s check out queue management could learn a lot from this simple method. By mid-afternoon though, several of us were commenting that we needed a third, “someone-make me-a-cup-of-tea-please”, flag as the stream of students was non-stop from 1.30-5.30 and from about 4.30pm some of us were having difficulty articulating our words. I don’t think I have spoken so constantly in my entire life, why, you wonder? Well, it wasn’t just a case of looking at their proffered passport, verifying the picture and date of birth and printing off the Kings ID card, that would barely have strained a vocal cord. No, this one-to-one session was the ideal opportunity for King’s to check that each enrolling student was up-to-speed with their onboarding processes and to create a fantastic King’s first impression for a whole variety of UK and EU students.

Hello, have a seat, do you have your student number. It’ll probably start “one nine” It’s in the subject line of your enrolment confirmation email. That’s the one. Fantastic. Now, whilst I confirm your identity and print off your ID card, can I just check, have you downloaded the ‘Welcome to Kings’ app? You have? That’s marvelous. And have you booked yourself onto your course, and department induction sessions? Next Tuesday? Excellent! But do consider attending some wider events to meet students who aren’t also studying molecular genetics / classical archaeology /astrophysics and cosmology. Don’t forget next week’s Welcome Hubs and the freshers fair over at The Barbican. That’s at Old Street. No, not really walkable but easy enough by bus. What bus from your accommodation in Camberwell? Do you know the TFL journey-planner? Perhaps you prefer Google maps, that’s good for buses too. Have you received your personal timetable yet? No? Well, the schools are publishing them at different times, yours might not be up there yet but keep checking KEATS. There’s a link to KEATS from the Kings App, yes that’s the one. Now I sense you’re new to London, have you registered with a GP yet? No, the one back at home isn’t going to help if you’re ill during term time. Oh, you’ve only been in the UK since Saturday. Well, you’ll need to register with a GP…Family doctor…It’s the route that you take to access most hospital-based health services in the UK. Yes, this is the NHS, you’ve heard of that? Good. Yes, it’s free and we’re very proud of it. Now you need to register now before you’re ill. No, they’re all ‘general’ practitioners, they refer you to the hospital specialists. Yes, it’s free for EU students with the European Health Insurance Card. Yes, well, who knows after 31^st October…Here’s your ID badge it gives you access to all sites, so, it’s a lovely day, go off and explore. Whilst in this building check out the Loft student space on the 7^th and 8^th floors, the student bar in the basement, oh and pop into the Strand Building opposite and have a look at the King’s Chapel, it’s fabulous. Any questions? No? Well, “Welcome to Kings!”. Waves green flag “Next!”

By 5.30pm I had confirmed and issued IDs to around 40 students, was mildly hoarse and exhausted but I’d do it again most certainly and would recommend the opportunity to others.

Empathy Epiphany

August 13, 2019 / Sarah Mander

I joined King’s 2½ years ago, and am seeing the end of my third academic year. It has always made me laugh how many people ask if I get the holidays off – if only! As much as a long summer holiday would be attractive, one of the main reasons I wanted this role was that it brought together the staff and student focus. I believe D&I applies to everyone everywhere in our organisation, and making and sustaining improvements requires looking at King’s as a whole.

An intrinsic part of my role is understanding our student body and forming good working relationships with the Students’ Union (KCLSU) elected Officers. Recently, I was privileged enough to attend this year’s outgoing Officers leaving party. I was astounded when I joined King’s and learned what was expected from student Officers. Taking a year out from their degrees, they are responsible for overseeing the work of the Students’ Union as a democratic charity, making collective decisions with other KCLSU Trustees, championing change and student activism, and supporting and empowering King’s students to influence change. This often involves them sitting on some of the College’s most senior or influential bodies like Council and Academic Board. It’s a steep learning curve and the stakes are high.

I found the leaving event really moving. Denis Shukur (CEO of KCLSU) and Evelyn Welch (Provost and Acting Principal) both gave lovely speeches recognising the Officers’ achievements and contributions. Then each of the Officers made a speech reflecting on their year; their election, the highs and lows, how they had formed and performed as a team and are clearly, now, close friends.

Denis Shukur (CEO of KCLSU) and Evelyn Welch (Provost and Acting Principal)

I was particularly affected by Jessica Oshodin’s speech. She was overcome with emotion and gave a living, breathing exposition of imposter syndrome and the isolation that comes with being the only black and female team member. She had been surprised to be elected. Each of her peers had clearly recognised, in their speeches, her hard work, her leadership, her competence and her legacy. While in post, Jessica ran the She Should Run campaign to encourage more women and those that self-identify as women to run for part of KCLSU’s elected positions. This hard work has resulted in two women winning elected positions in the 2019/20 KCLSU Officer team.

Jessica was brutally honest about how hard she had found the year and it made me cry.

Cry for so many reasons; because I was proud to know her and have played some small part in her journey. I had seen her in action and know her to be a woman of integrity, intelligence and effectiveness.

Because so much of what she said had personal resonance. I have often been the first or only woman/brown person somewhere and know well the feeling that I’m not good enough or worthy.

Because, even now, I believe she is still self-questioning, having completed her degree at King’s and been the Vice President Postgraduate officer in a pretty tough year. As someone with a Masters in exactly what she wants to do, she still holds a heap of self-doubt that is to do with her identity, not her capability.

It may surprise readers to know that I am often felt not to be a very empathetic person. Empathy, Google tells me, is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference. Simply, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position. It is a difficult thing to admit as core to my role is enabling others to develop and practice empathy. It’s an element of my personal development that I have worked on consistently over the years.

I believe myself to be and have been told that I am a good listener. What I am not is patient or good at listening without ‘helping’, which is what real empathy often requires: being able to listen and show that you understand and, in some situations, just allow the other person time and space. I am a ‘fixer’, I love to problem solve and act – so believe I am helping by advising and chivvying. I have had to learn to stop myself and I continue to try but know it’s not something that comes naturally.

Another area of improvement that I have recognised is that I need to stop immediately thinking about how I would feel or what I would do in a situation, but to step back and really make myself focus on understanding how the other person is feeling in the situation they are in. The more I have reflected, the more honest I have had to be with myself and know that I am not good at that particular element of empathy.

Being able to imagine myself in a situation is not the same as understanding how someone else is experiencing something. At the leaving party, l was truly able to see things through the individual Officers’ eyes and understand – I had an empathy epiphany! Their storytelling really stopped me and made me listen. Their stories also made me want to work harder to prevent future Jessicas and Mohammeds from feeling isolated and othered simply because of who they are and instead allow them to revel in their talent. So, as we face a new academic year, I will commit to redoubling my efforts to build my empathy skills and to more proactively supporting our newly elected KCLSU Officers.

Love Equality #Tellyourlovestory

July 26, 2019 / Sarah Mander

I’ve been in a particularly reflective mood recently. This last May saw a personal milestone that simultaneously filled me with joy, surprise, pride, and a little horror: my partner and I celebrated 20 years together!

Horror, because to have reached 20 years in a single relationship makes me feel ancient. I have a particularly difficult and incongruent set of thoughts around age (which for the record is a protected under the Equality Act). Age is just a number and shouldn’t in and of itself be loaded with intrinsic value.

But! We all know it is.

On the one hand, age has given me experience and seems now to automatically lend me credibility at work – several colleagues have mentioned their youth giving them imposter syndrome, feeling as though they are taken less seriously. At some point, as a woman, in your 40s, there is also some weird voodoo that occurs where you become invisible or irrelevant in many circumstances.

As well as the existential navel-gazing about age prompted by a 20-year anniversary, marveling at a chance meeting at a fancy dress party themed around song titles (I dressed as 99 red balloons – Jon for the record came in his everyday work suit claiming to be a ‘Sharp Dressed Man’!). It was also 1999, hence the celebratory balloons, that baffled most, that Jon bought in a grand romantic gesture.

I have come to recognise our achievement in being willing and able to work through the ups and downs and often unbelievable challenges of having 2 (mostly) full-time careers whilst co-parenting our blended family of 4 daughters (step and birth for me).

If life has taught me anything it is that there isn’t any ideal. There is what works for you, what makes you happy and brings you joy – if you are fortunate or for many, there is simply what life serves up. Married, heterosexual, monogamy is not an ideal it is just what we are (mostly) brought up to believe is expected!

I celebrate this anniversary recognising that we are conditioned to believe certain things are ‘ideal’ and that what we enjoy isn’t always been a legal possibility, for all people.

Growing up it never occurred to me that I (or anyone else) would have a relationship with anyone other than someone of the opposite sex. As I have matured and discovered more about myself and considered more honestly what attracts me to people, I believe that given ‘permission’ I would have explored a wider range of relationships earlier in my life and would do should I ever find myself open to new romantic relationships.

At the time we decided to get married, the law defined marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Neither of us practiced a faith and neither of us was that enthused at the idea of getting married per se, but we did want to celebrate our relationship and give each other the benefit of legal protections. Plus, we wanted to demonstrate our commitment to each other publicly as well as share our love with our friends and family (despite the fact my mother told several guests at the wedding that she had ‘given up’ on me getting married). That same year our brother’s in-law celebrated their love but couldn’t ‘get married’ being two men.

It’s heartening that today the choices of marriage and civil partnership are available to many more people regardless of sexual orientation. These are also characteristics protected by the Equality Act. Though, let’s remember, it is still not yet a right available to our Northern Ireland brothers and sisters though hopefully, this will change this October!

In 2019, it might seem archaic, but we also need to remember that it was not so long ago that married women, or women with children, had to leave employment. This piece of history is part of the reason we have female underrepresentation in our workforce.

So back to thinking about age and time, my life philosophy is that there’s little point in carrying around regret – we should learn from our experiences but not dwell or wallow in them. I am who I am because of all the experiences I have had the chance to have, not least, the 20 years of my relationship. They accumulate into me being the middle-aged (47-year-old) woman, mother of 4, who, against all odds, doing a job I love at an institution that fills me with pride, whilst sharing my life with someone who has been willing to work with me day by day to build our mutual life. A living, breathing example of intersections, age, parenting and marriage that can get lost in the regular diversity discussion.

Read about…

Latest posts