Category Archives: committees

When to Say Yes

Posted on 30 November 2024 by Athene Donald

I’ve been writing this blog for more than fourteen years now, incredible though that sounds, at least to me. I rarely look back at what has gone before and if I do, it’s mainly to check I’m not repeating myself. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Athena Forum, careers, committees, deficit model, Interdisciplinary Science, learning, Londa Schiebinger, macho, Project Implicit, Science Culture, Science Funding, social media, Unconscious bias, Universities | Comments Off on When to Say Yes

For the Last Time

Posted on 6 September 2024 by Athene Donald

For the Last Time I have written in the past about the challenges of doing something for the first time. For early career researchers, this could be anything from giving a conference presentation to travelling to another lab to learn … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Cynical and Irritable

Posted on 9 January 2022 by Athene Donald

‘This is not an era in which good things are taken at face value. We are cynical, irritable and tired, and if there is a bad intention to be read into anything, someone will scratch away at it until they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Who Has Authority Here?

Posted on 7 February 2021 by Athene Donald

Jackie Weaver may have become an internet sensation due to her calm handling of a bunch of unruly local councillors, but the behaviour manifest in the viral video is one that many a chair of an academic committee will recognize. … Continue reading →

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Some Animals are More Equal than Others

Posted on 5 November 2016 by Athene Donald

This week I attended the Royal Society’s Diversity Day. As everyone remarked, the audience was indeed remarkably diverse. Signing of the talks for the hard-of-hearing was available and the standard white male was in (relatively) short supply both on the … Continue reading →

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Women on the Platform

Posted on 4 August 2016 by Athene Donald

Too often one hears of — or attends in person — conferences where all (or nearly all) of the invited and keynote speakers are male. It is dispiriting every time one comes across such an occasion. It isn’t as if … Continue reading →

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Permission Given

Posted on 8 February 2016 by Athene Donald

This is a post about professional anxiety and what might be done to alleviate it. Consider who asks questions after departmental seminars or conference talks: too often it is the usual suspects (although my impression is that this is getting … Continue reading →

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Chairing: Not as Easy as it Looks

Posted on 25 November 2015 by Athene Donald

If you are setting out on your career, how do you acquire leadership skills? If you think you’re a born leader how can you check it out or improve? As part of the commemorations around the 50th anniversary death of … Continue reading →

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Eradicating Gender Stereotyping: How can Athena Swan Awards Help?

Posted on 6 November 2015 by Athene Donald

There is nothing like seeing gender stereotyping through reverse eyes to highlight its stupidity. Women are used to intrusive, inappropriate questions about their looks and dress, even in professional situations (see this recent story about Russian astronauts for an example); … Continue reading →

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Embedding the Gender Agenda

Posted on 10 June 2014 by Athene Donald

I feel as if I have been involved with gender issues forever, but this is just the bad habit one has of reimagining personal history. Probably acting wisely, in fact for most of my professional career I just got on … Continue reading →

Posted in committees, Equality, minorities, Unconscious bias, Women in science | Comments Off on Embedding the Gender Agenda