Theme lead: Dr Lubna Armed
Why
Over the last decades the desire and importance to recognise diversity and existing inequalities has gained prominence. We recognise that ‘culture’ can influence the possible impacts of diversity and therefore culture is a key consideration within this theme. Although progress has been made to get to a leveller playing field, much has yet to be learnt and achieved. The objective of this research group is to share research ideas and good practice related to diversity and equality, with the intent to form collaborative projects from both empirical and policy change perspectives.
What
The theme is open to discussion and research on any aspect of diversity, equality and culture. For example, these might include transient variations such as temporary group memberships, or constants such as ethnicity or gender. The current group projects include but are not restricted to: Minority groups and HE achievements, the impact of cultural variations in social structure on cognition, the impact of culture in multinational teams on worker emotions, weight cycling in ethnic minorities. Due to the multi- disciplinary nature of the cluster we envisage the researched implications to range across a broad spectrum; from success of multinational corporations, well-being through the lifespan, to the impact ethnicity may have on academic achievements.
How
We have regular informal monthly meetings where ideas and good practice can be shared. The aim is to generate projects with potential real-life impact. In terms of methodologies, there is no restriction to the method that is employed be this focus group research or neuroimaging recordings. Projects will be considered for both internal and external funding and projects teams are likely to include PG and PhD students, early career as well as established researchers.