Category: Diversity

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – December 2017

On By In Disability, Diversity, Inclusion, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month

On 3 December it is International Day of Disabled Persons and with that in mind we have chosen Jonnie Peacock as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

At the age of 5, Jonnie contracted meningitis, resulting in the amputation of his right leg, just below the knee.  He had always been a very positive young boy and despite initial difficulties soon got used to his new leg.

Jonnie had always loved sport particularly football but that was not an option with his prosthetic but at the age of 15 whilst waiting for an appointment at his prosthetic centre he saw a poster inviting anyone interested in sport to attend a talent identification day.  Jonnie was allowed to go and tried his hand at a number of different sports, however it was athletics that suited him best and his attendance at the event started his journey to becoming an international athlete.

He ran his first international race at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in May 2012 and at the 2012 Paralympics, just four years after seeing the poster, Jonnie won the 100m T44 final with a time of 10.90 seconds, claiming the gold and the Paralympic record in the process. In 2016 at the Rio Paralympics Jonnie defended his title and in 2017 he won the World Championships in London.

In September this year Jonnie joined Strictly Come Dancing becoming the first disabled person to compete on the show with the idea that he could show everyone what an amputee could do rather than not do. Jonnie was partnered with Oti Mabuse and despite not having danced before made it all the way to week 9.  Despite his disappointment Jonnie was honoured to be the first disabled person on the show and thanked the panel for judging him as an equal.

Jonnie was awarded an MBE in 2013 for services to athletics.

100 Women: Do the Olympics have a gender gap?

On By In Diversity, Equality, Gender

There were no women athletes at the first modern Olympic Games, in 1896, because its founder, Pierre de Coubertin, thought women were “not cut out to sustain certain shocks”.

More than 100 years later, Reality Check finds that women’s participation in the Summer Olympics has grown, but across the Olympic movement, the gender gap still exists.

Enshrined in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) charter is the commitment to “encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels”.

This would suggest the IOC no longer thinks along the lines of Pierre de Coubertin. But let’s take a closer look – starting with the sportswomen who participate.  More

Christian Cole: Oxford University’s first black student

On By In Diversity, Equality, Ethnicity, Inclusion, Race

In a salute to a “remarkable” man, the University of Oxford has paid tribute to its first black student. But who was Christian Cole and what was life like for him at a time when being black at the university wasn’t merely unusual, but remarkable?

Cole was always likely to turn heads when he arrived in Oxford to read classics.

It was 1873 and he was a 21-year-old black man from Waterloo, Sierra Leone, studying alongside young men from the elite families of Victorian England (His arrival pre-dated the institution of the university’s first women’s college by six years.).  More

Meet some of the UK’s oldest university students

On By In Age, Diversity

What does a student look like?

Forget the stereotypes. Think of diversity in a different way. And meet some of the country’s oldest undergraduates.

Maureen Matthews is starting a three-year law degree at the tender age of 79.

She’s not even the oldest student on her new course at the University of West London in Brentford.

Sitting next to her in lectures is 84-year-old Craigan Surujballi.

This isn’t dabbling in learning with an evening course – it’s an intensive, full-time degree, studying alongside people with ambitions to become lawyers.

“You may look at me and see an older face – as may many young people,” says Maureen.  More

Female-only Cambridge college to accept transgender applicants

On By In Diversity, Gender, Transgender

A female-only Cambridge University college will now accept applications from transgender students.

Murray Edwards, whose alumni include broadcasters Claudia Winkleman and Sue Perkins, had only admitted women since its creation in 1954.

It will now consider those who identify as female and, where identified as male at birth, have “taken steps to live in the female gender”.

Transgender students applications are being considered for the 2018 intake.  More

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – October 2017

On By In Diversity, Ethnicity, Gender, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, Race

October is Black History Month and with that in mind we have chosen Shirley Thompson as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Shirley is an English composer who became the first woman in Europe, within the past 40 years, to have composed and conducted a symphony with her New Nation Rising, A 21st Century Symphony written in 2002.

Shirley was born in London to Jamaican parents. Her early musical experience included playing the violin in various youth symphony orchestras in London, and choral singing with local choirs in Newham. She graduated in music from Liverpool University and in composition from Goldsmiths’ College.

After university she composed a body of solo and instrumental ensemble works for concert hall as well as working as a freelance composer of music for TV, films and the theatre. She set up the Shirley Thompson Ensemble in 1994 and this became the main vehicle for her instrumental and vocal works that fused contemporary classical orchestrations with popular and world music styles.

Shirley was the first woman to compose and musically direct music for a major drama series at the BBC and she also directed the film Memories in Mind, which was broadcast by the BBC in 1998.  She also co-scored the award-winning ballet PUSH, which premiered in 2005 which has since toured the world in major and prestigious venues.

Shirley has composed for opera, orchestra, contemporary dance, TV and film. Some of her other works include:

  • The Woman Who Refused to Dance– for solo singer, speaker and orchestra
  • Spirit of the Middle Passage– for solo singers, speaker and orchestra
  • Viola Concerto, Oslo Odyssey– for orchestral and electronic instruments and multi-media
  • 100 Days of Barack Obama– for solo voice, instrumental ensemble and video projection
  • The Lodger– theatrical music
  • A Child of the Jago– opera
  • Tapestry Song Cycle– for soprano and instrumental ensemble 

In 2010 Shirley was included in the “Power List of Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People 2010”.  In April 2016 she was honoured with the Luminary Award (presented to people of Caribbean heritage) who have made significant, outstanding contributions on an international scale or have brought to prominence issues that affect the Caribbean region.

To find out more about Shirley and her work see her website at http://shirleythompsonmusic.com/

To find out more about Black History Month see the website at http://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/

‘Most diverse Turner Prize to date’

On By In Age, Diversity, Gender, Inclusion

It was once the domain of outrageous young artists.

But this year the Turner Prize has grown up, shining a light on overlooked older artists, unsensational subject matter and traditional methods.

The exhibition of the four shortlisted artists opens in Hull on Tuesday.

After a rule change, Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid are the first over-50s to be nominated since 1991, while Andrea Buttner and Rosalind Nashashibi are both in their 40s.  More

Glasgow Alphas: Why coach Adam ‘owes life’ to inclusive rugby

On By In Diversity, Equality, LGBT

Bullied for his weight and sexuality, Adam Harrison was spiralling into despair.

As a teenager, Adam loved rugby, but was unable to find a place within it. He didn’t think he’d ever fulfil his dream of playing in a team. Now he blazes a trail as a coach, player, inspiring a new generation of LGBTQ players.

He explains how rugby rescued him…

Rugby became the most important thing when it saved my life.

My depression had led me to have vivid images of self-harm. I began spiralling and flying through several dark emotions in spells that lasted minutes. More

BBC 100 Women: Nine things you didn’t know were invented by women

On By In Diversity, Equality, Gender

Asked to name important inventors and you might start with Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell or Leonardo da Vinci.

But what about Mary Anderson? Or Ann Tsukamoto?

You might not know their names, but they are just two of the female inventors behind everyday objects and scientific innovations.

BBC 100 Women, the season featuring stories of inspiring and influential women, is taking on a new challenge.

This year, women from around the world will be asked to come up with innovations to tackle some of the biggest problems they face.

Scroll down for more information about 100 Women – and, for more inspiration, here are nine inventions we wouldn’t have, if it weren’t for ground-breaking women.  More

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – September 2017

On By In Age, Disability, Diversity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month

September is World Alzheimer’s Month and with this in mind we have chosen David Baddiel as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month.

 David one of Britain’s most popular comedians. He was first known as one of the stars of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and then Newman and Baddiel In Pieces. In 1992, with Rob Newman, David performed to 12,500 people in the UK’s first ever arena comedy show.

In 1994 David and Frank Skinner created Fantasy Football League allowing them to talk about football for a living for over 10 years. The pair, along with The Lightening Seeds, wrote the iconic unofficial England anthem ‘Three Lions’, which has been number one three times and is still heard at games around the world.  In 2000 David and Frank created the hit ITV show Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned, going out live and unscripted for over 60 episodes. They joined up together again in 2006 and 2010 to record one of the first hit podcasts, Baddiel and Skinner’s World Cup Podcasts, live from Germany and South Africa. The show was downloaded over a million times and was one of the first podcasts to be nominated for a Sony award.

Away from the screen David has been writing for nearly 20 years. He has published seven books to date and in 2010 David wrote his first movie with the hit indie film The Infidel, starring Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff, Matt Lucas and Miranda Hart.

After nearly 15 years away David returned to the stage in 2013 with his critically acclaimed show FAME: Not The Musical.

David is also an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society.  His Dad is currently living with Pick’s Disease a form of Dementia and this was the subject of his stage show ‘My Family: Not the Sitcom’ and Channel 4 documentary ‘The Trouble with Dad’.

David wants to use comedy to talk about dementia to raise awareness of what dementia is, and how it affects every person differently. He is joined forces with the Alzheimer’s Society to continue this conversation and to encourage others to unite against dementia so no-one has to face the condition alone.

To find out more about World Alzheimer’s Month see here

https://www.alz.co.uk/world-alzheimers-month

To find out more about David see his website http://www.davidbaddiel.com/