Imperial Natural Sciences blog

By Dr Kenji Okuse, Chair of EDI Committee, Department of Life Sciences

I came to the UK from Japan in 1995, and as a non-White member of society, had my own perspective on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issues, but to be honest I hadn’t thought about them seriously until I had the opportunity to get involved with the Department of Life Sciences (DoLS) EDI Committee in May 2019. I first took on the role of interim Chair, and now act as the Chair of the Committee. There are many complex and evolving issues in EDI, and my aim as Chair is to make our Department a fairer and friendlier place for everyone no matter, who they are or what role they have.

Tackling systemic issues: starting at the personal and local level

A world where everyone has equal opportunities and respects each other is what we hope for and work towards. However, it’s very difficult to achieve significant change towards that ideal without having proper structures in each level of our society designed to help us to get better at tackling the systemic issues that underpin it. (more…)

Read EDI in Life Sciences: a Department perspective in full

By Vanessa Madu, Undergraduate, Department of Mathematics

So it’s September, social media feeds are back to normal, the only chanting you hear in the street is the jolly song of ‘socially distanced’ pub-goers on a Friday night and it feels as though the world is slowly turning a blind eye to one of the biggest injustices happening in the world today.

On 25 May 2020, a horrendous act of police brutality took the life of George Floyd. Police brutality was an issue that was known to be particularly bad against the Black community in the United States but this time it was different. This time it was filmed. The entire world grabbed a hold of this and many different people, organisations, cities and even whole countries stood in solidarity with the Black community.

However, I was focused on what was happening closer to home at Imperial. The population of Black students and staff at the College is known to be low, showing that we have a long way to go to truly becoming a ‘global university’. Though the College as a whole responded to Floyd’s death, some departments across Imperial didn’t reach out to their staff and students and respond directly to the events that were going on. A vast majority of students don’t interact with the College as an entity; we find our communities within our departments, and by not responding, it felt like they weren’t working to actively support us or promote an anti-racist culture. This is something that I wanted to work to change. It is extremely important that every department at the College stands with and is making commitments to support their Black students.

So I put out a survey. (more…)

Read Black Lives Matter on campus too in full