Launched in May 2024, the Imperial Cohesion event series aims to support and develop the community at Imperial engaged with equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) work.

Hosted by Professor Lesley Cohen and Dr Wayne Mitchell, Associate Provosts (EDI), the event aims to be inclusive of everyone interested in EDI at Imperial. Each event will consider particular topics and include time for questions from the audience. Similar in format to the In Conversation with the President and Provost events, we hope to bring together everyone working on EDI and be a platform to ask questions.

13 November 2024 event summary

It is estimated that between 15% - 20% of people in the UK are neurodivergent, and although declaration rates for staff at Imperial are much lower than this, it is likely that a lack of understanding and appreciation underpins much of the misunderstandings in our communication within our work environment.

The November 2024 Imperial Cohesion presentation (pdf) included:

  • Kani Kamara, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre (EDIC) Advisor, who highlighted the support and awareness guidance offered by the Centre
  • Professor Sara Rankin, who talked about her own journey and the value of cognitive diversity recognised within the commercial tech world
  • Dez Mendoza and Lillie Pakzad-Shahabi, members of the staff disability network ABLE, will spoke about Neurodiversity Affirming Practices

 

Information on previous events

1 May 2024 event

This inaugural event heard from:

  • Lesley Cohen and Wayne Mitchell, Associate Provosts (EDI), who talked about the direction of the new EDI Strategy.
  • Kani Kamara gave a brief introduction to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre (EDIC) and their work.
  • Chris Peters presented on the lessons learnt by the Department of Surgery and Cancer in their journey towards Athena Swan gold recognition. 

We had almost 200 registrations for the event, and over 150 people attending on the day. You can read the May 2024 Imperial Cohesion presentation (pdf) and watch a recording of the presentations (Imperial login required).

We had nearly 100 comments and questions in the Q&A, and so we were only able to respond to a few of the most 'liked' questions during the event. We have grouped all of the questions by topic and provided written answers - Q&A from Imperial Cohesion May 2024 event (pdf)