Minorities in STEM: Barriers they face in academia and pathways to allyship

20 min

Izzy Jayasinghe

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About this video

What are the barriers faced by women, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ colleagues in their career progression in STEM? How does one best make the STEM research environment inclusive – from the workplace culture to national level of funding?

In this module, our expert will highlight the bottlenecks and barriers faced by women, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ people in career progression. She will talk about the pivotal role of funding in career progression for academics in STEM, and also how the pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities. She will discuss different ways (from departmental level to national level) in which equality can be restored for these colleagues.

This module is part of Inclusion and Diversity for Researchers webinar series and aimed for anyone working in STEM disciplines who is interested in inclusivity and diversity awareness, inequalities and what to do about them.

About the presenter

Izzy Jayasinghe

Senior Research Fellow

Izzy is a Senior Research Fellow and a UKRI Future Leader Fellow in the School of Biosciences in the University of Sheffield. Her research has focused on developing new optical microscopy techniques for studying the organisation of the molecules of life, particularly proteins, within the heart. Her current research focuses on developing more accessible, faster and higher resolution imaging methods for imaging optically-thick (and biologically more complex) samples. Aside from her academic work, she works to improve equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in academia via organisations in the UK such as Advance HE, LGBTQ+ STEM (as one of the co-leads), TIGER in STEMM, the strategic advisory team of the Engineering Research Council and other professional organisations such the Royal Microscopical Society. As a trans woman of colour, she is particularly outspoken about the marginalisation of queer colleagues and students who also belong to ethnic minorities in the UK.