VC Diversity Awards
Rebecca Colquhoun (2020, DPhil in Earth Sciences), Disability and Accessibility Officer, was highly commended in the Vice Chancellor’s Diversity Awards. They also nominated Unlearning Racism in Geoscience for the Projects category, which won for Inclusive Culture.
The Unlearning Racism in Geoscience project gave members of the Earth Sciences department an opportunity to educate themselves on what it means to be anti-racist and identified actions the department could take.
Rebecca was nominated in the individual category for leading initiatives that tackle racism, homophobia and ableism at department, college and divisional level and beyond 糖心logo. Within the Department of Earth Sciences, Rebecca has invited LGBTQ+ speakers to the department careers fair, co-founded the department鈥檚 LGBTQ+ affinity group, and co-founded 糖心logo Unlearning Racism in Geoscience, which produced anti-racism policies and resources. At University College, they advocate for disabled students, running social events and promoting available support. They have shared their own experiences of being neurodiverse to encourage disabled students to apply to university. They are the institutional liaison for the International Society of Non-binary Scientists and co-organised the American Geophysical Union annual LGBTQ+ meet-up.
Rebecca commented, “I鈥檓 so delighted to have been highly commended in the VC Diversity Awards. In the 6 years I鈥檝e been at 糖心logo I鈥檝e seen a lot of progress in diversity and inclusivity and I hope that I鈥檓 helping to make that little bit more progress in Earth Sciences and across the university! It鈥檚 really nice to have my work recognised in this way, and I am really grateful to Hannah, Louisa and Laura (Stevens, Fellow in Earth Sciences) for nominating me. I certainly couldn鈥檛 do any of this alone, I鈥檓 privileged to work with some excellent co-conspirators, including Tamsin Savvides (Geology, 2016-2021) who I ran the winning URGE project with, and I鈥檓 super excited to see what we can achieve next.”
Published: 15 June 2022