Valerie Eliot-Smith, a Visiting Scholar at CCLS at Queen Mary has been championing awareness around ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) as she has been living with it since 1981.
Over the last two years, she has advised on, and contributed to, a film about ME. The film was the final output of a project which was made possible by an award from the Wellcome Institute’s Public Engagement Fund.
The final film in the series was released via this website at the end of last year. This film is an exploration of the history and politics surrounding ME and Queen Mary’s role in the story of ME is mentioned in the film.
Raspberry Pi Foundation have produced a short (20 page) booklet based on their research into criteria for learning resources that promote diversity. While their research is aimed at teachers of students up to 18 years old there is something we can all pick up from this leaflet.
The booklet has sections about teaching approaches, showing diverse role models and creating examples that draw on a range of cultural contexts.
On World Bipolar Day (30 March, 2022), Director of Wellbeing Dr. Mahesha Samaratunga shares her advice on how we might help and support our students and each other by raising our awareness about bipolar disorder.
We have students amongst us who struggle with bipolar disorder and as Module Organisers and Academic Advisors, it is important that we be aware/educate ourselves around what this may look like in the classroom/online.
Understanding bipolar
A student with bipolar will depict very different behaviour to that of other students and they often get misunderstood and labeled as ‘bad, aggressive behaviour’.
Students with bipolar can be misunderstood in social interactions, email communications, and how they interact with the faculty and peers. They also often go unsupported. Common myths need to be eradicated such ‘as students/people with bipolar are aggressive and dangerous or attention-seeking.
As always if you are an advisor please advise students to connect with their GP regularly and guide them to Advice & Counselling. If in doubt please do not hesitate to contact me.
The goal of World Bipolar Day is to bring the world population information about bipolar disorders that will educate and improve sensitivity towards the illness and eliminate social stigma around this illness. You can read more about World Bioplar Day here: https://www.bipolaruk.org/bipolar-awareness-day.
This international conference will bring together researchers studying attitudes towards gender-neutral language in different languages and countries.
Gender-neutral and gender-inclusive language is currently being discussed in the public sphere, and views on the subject have increasingly been voiced by individuals as well as organisations. These include state institutions, private associations, subject specialists such as linguists, and private individuals / laypeople. Views of and attitudes towards gender-neutral language cover a broad spectrum between extreme ends, and even subject specialists hold conflicting views. Some academic research on attitudes towards gender-neutral language has been conducted and published. However, a multinational/multilingual, comparative perspective is still missing.
Hosted by the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film at Queen Mary University, this event will be free to attend and will address and discuss questions such as:
How are attitudes towards gender-neutral language voiced in different countries and languages? What groups or individuals engage in the debate, and what are their views and attitudes? What are the prevailing discourses? Are there clashes between proponents of different varieties of gender-fair language?
A selected number of contributions will be included in a high-quality edited volume on “Attitudes towards gender-inclusive language. A multinational perspective”, with a publisher of excellent standing.
For more information about this conference, including registering your interest, and submitting a proposal, visit :ttp://qmul.pfalzgraf.net/?i=1
The evening of Friday 1 April marked the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, which is a religious month observed by many Muslims in the UK and around the world. Ramadan falls at a different time each year because Islam uses the lunar calendar.
The month of Ramadan is a time of spiritual reformation where Muslims
try to increase their spiritual devotional acts such as prayer, giving to charity,
and strengthening family ties, and also to fast and abstain from eating and
drinking during daylight hours.
Muslim staff and students observing Ramadan may face some changes during
this month which may potentially impact their workday or studies.
How we can support our students and colleagues during Ramadan in EECS
Queen Mary is hosting Open Iftar and will be providing an iftar experience to people of all and no faiths. The Open Iftar will be held on Thursday 21 and 28 April for food and drinks at sunset in Library Square. To find out more, visit: http://www.faith.qmul.ac.uk/news/2022-04/open-iftar-2022
Ramadan Mubarak to all our Muslim students and colleagues at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary.
The School of English and Drama at Queen Mary is hosting a two-day event exploring
productive, radical, contemporary encounters between the arts and mental health, bringing together clinical, artistic and research perspectives that offer a re-interpretation of contemporary mental health science and practice, with a view of imagining a different future.
This year’s theme is Masked/Unmasked.
The wearing of physical masks to face the pandemic is a prompt to reflect on the metaphorical masks we wear to face the world, how we put these on to protect us from an unforgiving social world at the price of hiding the beauty of our differences. Interventions will examine how the arts can help us see behind the masks and sustain a new vision for mental health.
On University Mental Health Day (3 March), Director of Wellbeing Dr. Mahesha Samaratunga reminds staff of ways we can help support our students and each other by raising mental health awareness.
‘This #UniMentalHealthDay, (Thursday 3rd March), keep an eye out for the Wellbeing Stalls on campus in Library Square from 12-2pm, featuring information on mental health charities, mindfulness and volunteering. Students can also attend a Mindfulness Taster session in the Chaplaincy from 2-3pm.
‘For academic staff working directly with students, please check in with your advisees and if they are struggling with their mental health do direct them to me or Advice & Counselling.
‘Do encourage your advisees to get help for their mental well-being struggles and remind them of the importance of engaging with their GP keeping to their scheduled appointments with Queen Mary Advice & Counselling.
‘If students need a wellbeing meeting with me, please pass on my details to them.
‘The mental wellbeing of our community of staff in the School is of course equally important. Here are some tips on supporting colleagues or finding support and guidance for yourself.
‘Check in with team members and ask them how they are.
‘Attend wellbeing webinars or events. Our Employee Assistance Programme is running an online webinar ‘From tired to inspired: keeping engaged and preventing burnout’ on Thursday 17 March at 12pm. Watch via the portal (username: queenmary password: employee): https://www.workplaceoptions.co.uk/member-login-2/. There are also several on demand webinars that staff can watch including Stress buster: Managing and Taking Control of Your Life, Open Communication: Powerful Ways to Create It Sleep Essentials.
‘If you are thinking of getting therapy and you don’t know what may be suitable for you the BACP has a lot of resources https://www.bacp.co.uk/
Active bystander training is about how to react when you encounter workplace behaviour that you don’t consider appropriate. QMUL organises it as part of their professional development training. In QMUL over fifty senior members of staff have received this training to act as role-models and champions . The course lasts 90 minutes in total, currently it’s delivered online. The training deals with behaviours from more obvious bullying and harassment to “micro-aggressions”, smaller events that are sometimes unintentional or hard to prove (eg taking more questions from men than women, sighing when some people are presenting).
The idea is to give you an array of possible responses from directly challenging the behaviour to more subtle techniques to support the target of the behaviour or address the problem behaviour more subtly. The training begins with examples and theory and then works through scenarios. It gives you various tools to challenge unacceptable behaviour.
Lecturer in EECS Dr Mona Jaber was appointed to the IEEE Women in Engineering in UK and Ireland committee. She is one of ten committee members joining at the tail end of 2021. We asked her to describe the organisation and her role in it for our blog.
What we do:
IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) is the largest international
professional organisation dedicated to promoting women engineers and
scientists. WIE UK & Ireland adopts the mission and principles of
IEEE WIE which are centred on the promotion of women engineers and
scientists through various efforts:
Industrial and research seminars
Career orientated panel events to inspire the next generation.
Pop up networking events allowing young scientists to interact with science and engineering of the future.
Networking events at conferences.
What is my role: I have been a member of IEEE WIE and IEEE Women in Communication Engineering (WICE) for ten years and have recently volunteered to take an active role in the IEEE WIE UK & Ireland committee. I will lead the students’ activities in the UK and Ireland universities; for example we recently organised a meeting at Strathclyde University on Ethical Engineering: The Climate Crisis. In addition, I will support IEEE WIE UK & Ireland Industry relations team by (a) supporting early career researchers and students wanting to engage with industry (b) supporting industry partners who want to improve their diversity and inclusion performance (c) engaging industry partners in talks, events, mentorship, and sponsorship.
For this month’s Staff Spotlight, we spoke to Dr. Gokop Goteng, Senior Lecturer at EECS. He told us about his greatest achievement, what he would choose to have if he were stranded on a desert island, and his involvement on the School’s Equalities Committee.
Can you tell us about your current role and about joining Queen Mary?
I am a Senior Lecturer in IoT and Cloud Computing and I teach in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Joint Programme (JP) between QMUL and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) in Beijing, China. I teach cloud computing, software engineering and middleware modules and I am the module organiser for the cloud computing and JP Summer School modules. I joined Queen Mary in September 2014.
Why did you pursue your chosen career?
I have pursued a career in academia as it gives me the opportunity to constantly improve on my knowledge and skills and then impart that to my students. Academia gives you the flexibility and freedom to work with researchers and collaborate with the industry.
Who or what inspired your interest in your area of research?
I was inspired to pursue research in the areas of cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) after doing my MSc thesis in grid computing. My MSc supervisor encouraged me to do a PhD in grid computing, which enabled me to understand the concept of providing computing resources as services on-demand basis, just as utility companies provide electricity and water as services to customers and be charged only for the amount you have used. Today, grid computing has metamorphosed into what we called cloud computing, in which IT resources are provided via the internet as services without the need to build your own datacentres.
What’s the best thing about your job?
The best thing about my job as a lecturer at Queen Mary is the freedom given to academics to initiate ideas and collaborate with the industry and other researchers to improve learning experience for our students and community.
What is your greatest career or non-career achievement?
My greatest career achievement is winning the first UK Grid Computing competition during my PhD which was organised by the British Computer Society and sponsored by Microsoft and Intel. Part of the prize is to attend the European Microsoft Innovation Conference in Brussel, where I met Bill Gates at the conference.
What are your hobbies outside of work?
I listen to country music and do some exercise outside of work.
If you were stuck on a desert island, what song, book and luxury item would you chose?
I would choose and sing the “Amazing Grace” song by John Newton (1725–1807) if I were stuck on a desert island.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
The homeless in our society.
Can you tell us about your involvement with the EECS Equalities Committee, and what you hope you get out of this?
I was highly honoured and humbled when my colleague, and committee co-chair, Mustafa, invited me to join the EECS Equalities Committee, especially when he mentioned that I am the only black academic staff in EECS. I aim to use my skills in cloud computing and data science to contribute to getting quality data and analysing them as a member of the EECS EDI Data Team so that together we can use this data to suggest better ways and policies that will make Queen Mary a better place for everyone to attend their full potentials, regardless of their race, religion, gender, ethnicity and other affiliations. In addition, I would like to see more BAMEs, especially black minorities recruited as academic and professional staff in EECS.
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