The session was led by Syd King (he/they), with guest speakers Daz Skubich (they/them), Doron Cohen (he/him) & Stacey McKnight (she/her). The session focused on the importance of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in academia, starting by defining some common LGBTQ+ related terminology & talking about the importance of Language, followed by getting people’s pronouns correct and what to do if you accidentally get them wrong.

At the start of the Language section of the session, participants rated how confident they felt with LGBTQ+ Language, 0% of participants felt ‘Totally Lost’, 50% felt ‘Not Confident’ in this area, and only 37.5% felt ‘Fairly Confident’, whilst 12.5% felt ‘Very Confident’. Participants then re-voted at the end of the Language section, and the results here: 0% ‘Totally Lost’, 0% ‘Totally Lost’, 62.5% ‘Fairly Confident’, 25% ‘Very Confident’.

The session then went on to cover attitudes and sensitivity – particularly to responding to complaints and inclusive & uninclusive curriculums – especially with regards to language and queer erasure. Finally, it covered why some people are not inclusive, and why inclusivity matters so much, covering both health & academic impacts of inclusivity for both LGBTQ+ and CisHet (cisgender & heterosexual) students. This area was based on a toolkit by Burdge, Sinclair, Laub & Russell (2012). Their research found that inclusive curriculums had a positive academic impact on LGBTQ+ students, and a positive health impact & feeling of safety in their school on LGBTQ+ & CisHet students.

You can find the toolkit by Burdge, Sinclair, Laub & Russell (2012) here: http://lgbtqi2stoolkit.org/pdf/ImplementingLessons_fullreport.pdf 

For more information, please look at the PowerPoint presentation below:

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