Drawing by Maggie Demidova for International Women's Day
Dr Elizabeth Rendon-Morales and Dr Louise Newnham are inviting female staff members at the University to be part of a series of photography portraits to help raise awareness and showcase the female role models working at Sussex.
To celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March, Dr Rendon-Morales, Director of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion at the School of Engineering and Informatics and Dr Louise Newnham, Athena SWAN lead at the School of Life Sciences are creating a set of portraits of our female staff including a picture and an encouraging comment that will be shared across Sussex social media channels and displayed in the University.
Dr Rendon-Morales said: “This is an opportunity to showcase the valuable contribution women make to the University. We would like to encourage all departments and Schools to build their own collections of portraits of female role models for our students and colleagues. We also acknowledge the importance of visible role models, particularly for under-represented groups at the University.”
The call is inviting all female staff members, whether academics, researchers, teaching tutors, technicians, professional services and support staff, or PhD students working at Sussex, to take part and email April Yeatman and Ferheen Ayaz before the end of Tuesday 7 March, including:
- your encouraging statement and picture using this Power Point template, indicating your preferred date to book a time slot with Stuart Robinson, the University photographer
- your own photo and statement within the template for social media display.
The encouraging comments could be:
- a personal experience (e.g. proudest achievement at Sussex)
- advice for women wanting to get into your field
- a reflection on a woman who has inspired you (mother/daughter/wife/partner/friend)
- or simply a comment supporting our celebration of Women at Sussex.
Stuart will be available from Wednesday 1 to Friday 3 March and the mornings of Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 March. We encourage you have your photograph taken rather than supplying a photo, as portraits taken in a work environment will help to highlight the breadth of roles.
See some of the inspiring comments and portraits that Sussex women have already shared in this interactive board.