BU’s Department of Archaeology & Anthropology achieves Athena SWAN award
We are delighted to announce that BU’s Department of Archaeology & Anthropology has received the Athena SWAN bronze award, in recognition of their commitment to working towards gender equality in higher education.
The principles of Athena SWAN relate to gender equality in the following areas:
representation
progression of students into academia
journey through career milestones
working environment for all staff.
Internal & external review
Working with colleagues from across the university, such as Equality & Diversity advisor, James Palfreman-Kay who acted as a critical friend, along with undergraduate and postgraduate students, the 17 strong team carried out an internal review and created an action plan which was used as the basis for their Athena SWAN bronze award submission.
Kate Welham, Professor of Archaeological Sciences and Athena SWAN Champion for the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology said “We are incredibly proud of our Athena SWAN award. This represents an important collective step for our Archaeology and Anthropology community. It underlines our commitment to creating an inclusive culture that recognises and values all.”
Feedback from the Athena SWAN assessors, who carried out the external review, praised the team for their diversity and the inclusion of students, their appreciation of workload and commitments and the three year tenure for leadership roles which creates development opportunities for colleagues across the department.
Students Amara Reed, Rowan Crocker-Horn and Nat Darby-Hoskin, who took advantage of the opportunity to be involved commented “Working with the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology to ensure we are taking the right steps towards positive change has been an amazing opportunity. The whole Athena SWAN team are very proud to receive the Bronze Award, and eager to implement the action plan. We would encourage any interested students to find out more about how to work with the Athena SWAN team within their Department/Faculty.”
Professor Mark Gillings, Head Of Department For Archaeology and Anthropology and Athena SWAN lead for the department said “The team worked really hard not only to achieve a successful submission but to really understand the value of inclusivity and how this provides everyone with the opportunity to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Moving forward, we hope our team experience can be used as a template to assist other BU departments with their submissions.”
