Critical Diversities@ the Intersection: Policies, Practices, Perspectives

The overall aim of the Critical Diversities@ the Intersection: Policies, Practices, Perspectives seminar series is to:

Stimulate discussion and critical thinking around the construction, debates and enduring divisions in 'diversity' as a concept, practice and policy requirement in fostering different 'publics'. The overall aim is underpinned by four main objectives:

1) To bring together a range of national and international contexts, varied methodological and multidisciplinary views, including contributions from sociology, social policy, the creative arts and other disciplines to explore and critically engage with issues of diversity. Contributors will be from across the career stage (with est. graduate prizes).

2) To contribute to developing and sharing research which critically reflects diversity as a lived reality attached to advantaged and disadvantaged groups: how does 'diversity' compel a (personal, institutional, academic) response from those occupying (non)normative identities? What different, even diverse, forms of (dis)engagement does this produce and/or fail?

3) To strengthen empirical and academic work by bringing together leading researchers in the UK with esteemed overseas researchers, who are working in the fields of diversity, intersectionality, policy-legal development (notably Kimberlé Crenshaw who is accredited with the conceptualisation of 'intersectionality'). These are situated in the context of State retrenchment and with a view towards promoting knowledge generation and knowledge transfer between academic and non-academic research users.

4) To establish further dialogue with research users including policymakers, and practitioners working with diverse users. It will work closely with the following groups: the Government Equalities Office; the Equality and Human Rights Commission; Equalities Network; Stonewall; Equality Challenge Unit; Runnymede Trust and the Young Foundation; Kids Company, Serious about Youth, the Family and Parenting Institute and the Daycare Trust.

Seminars in the series will be held in London and Leeds and both sites are easily accessed by participants from all parts of the UK and overseas. The seminars will be structured around the following themes, and will include book launch events; dedicated postgraduate/ECR panels; innovative research-designer interdisciplinary engagements; media dissemination (with Guardian Journalist Prof. Gary Younge being a Visiting Prof. at LSBU):

Different Subject, Diverse Strands: Diversity at the (Inter)discipline
Divisive Realities: Lived Experiences, Diversity Dis-junctures
Diverse Policies: Colliding Concerns
Diverse Publics: Political Plurality, Public Potential?
Two-day International Conference: Critical Diversities: Policies, Perspectives, Practices (with book series launch)

A large collaborative cross-institutional ESRC grant will be developed after the Series and PI/CO will co-author a book Exchanging Diversity: The Purchase of Difference. The Books series Critical Diversities: Policies, Practices and Perspectives will be launched with Editorial Board Members from across LSBU, Leeds, and participants' institutions.

The Series is motivated by the importance of providing accessible knowledge transfer and impact generation to user-groups and stakeholders, and the PI/CO-I have strong records of this . Thus, one of the key aims of the project is to create dialogue between academic, policy maker, and practioner and user-group communities and, the project explicitly foregrounds the importance of knowledge and practice sharing between (non)academic members. A range of individuals, groups and organisations from across a range of academic and non-academic user groups were consulted and expressed interest in participating in the seminar series and contributing to discussions as audience members. These include: the Government Equalities Office; the Equality and Human Rights Commission; Equalities Network; Stonewall; Equality Challenge Unit; Runnymede Trust and the Young Foundation; Kids Company, Serious about Youth, the Family and Parenting Institute and the Daycare Trust.

These users will benefit from the series in terms of taking forward into their agencies the key messages that emerge out of different perspectives drawn from cross-disciplinary and international comparative dialogue. Thus the Series will potentially inform policy, NGO and campaigning organisations in influencing agency recommendations, demonstrating measurable user-impact.

We will draw on dissemination practices established within the Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research at LSBU and CIGS University of Leeds. Collaboration between these two Centres will enable the project at all stages of its lifespan to connect with research expertise in both the realms of the social: Sociology; Social Policy, and Cultural Studies: both institutions have international reputations for research around, gender and sexual identity; diversity and equality; intersectionality; race and ethnicity; educational inequalities; space and place, the environment - at methodological and conceptual levels.

We will also draw on the individual dissemination resources of the applicants including the websites of, and extensive mailing lists attached to the Weeks Centre and CIGS. A dedicated webpage will be set up at www.lsbu.ac.uk to promote the seminar series as a whole and the individual seminars, and we will use this to upload bulletins and summary notes of seminars, which draw on the key issues emerging from the individual presentations and the overall series debates. We also plan to access the mailing lists/databases established through the research centres at LSBU and Leeds; the applicants own networks and those provided by named users to publicise the event. The methods we will use to promote and advertise the series and individual seminars include email notifications on the dedicated web-page and both universities' website and the distribution of leaflets and posters at related events.

We will seek to gain media coverage to promote the seminar series and highlight key issues emerging from the seminar debates using our existing media contacts. An innovative media forum will be our use of community radio. The PI has used radio to publicise her research (Tyne Tees, Radio 4). 'Colourful Radio FM' is a possible site of communication which features a combination of spot-advertising, read-outs, and the use of online banners on its website. We will draw on the applicants' well-established contacts within youth services, local authority departments, UCU, voluntary sector services and community organisations to promote and publicise the event in related publications and professional newsletters.