Department of Management Seminar Programme 2021-2022

Navigating the choppy waters in academia together: how the lived experiences of disabled academics offer hope for new alliances, research collaborations and change for better working lives.

With guest speaker: Professor Kate Sang, Professor of Gender and Employment Studies, and Director of the Centre for Research on Employment Work and the professionS (CREWS), Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University.

Sharing findings from six projects, Kate will explore the lived experiences of disabled academics and those living with long term conditions (including gynaecological health conditions) and how these reveal the ableist working practices which create challenging workplaces for all academics. The data reveal how ableist working practices, the implicit assumptions of the 'ideal academic' and discriminatory human resource management policies interact to create a hostile working environment for disabled academics, with many choosing to leave the sector. Drawing on principles of co-design and participatory action research, Kate will share strategies for improving the academic workplace for all, through the building of alliances and raising the awareness and understanding of research leaders of disability inclusion. Kate will also address the question of enabling accessibility and will speak about the opportunities for future change orientated research collaborations. 

Speaker Bio:

Professor Kate Sang is a Professor of Gender and Employment Studies at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University. She is the Director of the recently formed Centre for Research on Employment Work and the professionS (CREWS). Kate's research interests include academic labour, disability inclusion, problematic menstruation in the workplace and using co-design principles to create inclusive workplaces. Kate's current research is funded by ESRC, NERC, EPSRC, Royal Society of Chemistry and the Foundation of Sociology of Health and Illness.