Local library

It's always fun to blog about triumphs! But sometimes when you blog, you end up broadcasting your failures. This is one of those posts I find a bit difficult.

I moved to North Wales yonks ago. And as you guessed from the title, I only joined the library now. I feel a bit bad about it! If you don’t use these facilities, they vanish. And borrowing books instead of buying them is more environmentally friendly, and doesn’t lead to your house cluttering up. Only advantages! 

Why didn’t I? I suppose it never made it to the top of the to do list. I don’t read much. I can borrow anything from the University library, which is a lot bigger. When I tried in Plymouth, I was a bit disappointed by the range of books available (I seem not to have blogged about that). It tends to take me longer than the borrowing period to read a book. 

What got me to snap into action? Welsh class! We will be reading a book for it. I had a look in the local Welsh books shop, but they didn’t have it. The University library seemed to only have it in digital form. So then I got my skates on and became a member of the library in my town. It’s free to join, and really close by! And they had the book. 

Now I'm a member! I intend to visit fairly regularly from now on. But I should get my teeth into that book for Welsh class first!

Remembrance Sunday on the Orme

 I was at Neil’s place on Sunday the 9th, which was Remembrance Sunday. And he mentioned that Llandudno has a quirky tradition: on that day, an acquaintance of his fires a cannon (blanks, of course) from a hill overlooking the Promenade. And we decided to go and watch. 

It seems that he had the cannon custom made. It’s very shiny! And he fires it using gunpowder in aluminium foil, with a crumpled up newspaper as the blank. We got there just in time. Below, you could see the crowds on the promenade, where a ceremony took place. 

It was cool to watch! With my fingers in my ears. Is especially having war machinery made in the spirit of Remembrance Day? Is a clearly pre-20th century cannon design particularly apt? Is coming for the cannon rather than the act of remembrance the most respectful way of approaching the occasion? Not really, to all of these. But there we are. It’s what happened.

Own the night

The clocks would change. That means dark evenings. And some people depend on the evening for their exercise. And quite a lot of people have running as their main exercise. But not everyone is comfortable running in the dark, especially alone. And most of the people who aren't are women.

Welsh Athletics (WA) had decided to run a campaign in order to draw attention to this, and try to make an incremental change towards women being safe running alone, whenever wherever. And in order to do that, they organised a series of events called "own the night". And they encouraged individual club to organise events as well.

The Cybi Striders heeded WA’s call, and organised an event in Menai Bridge. I like the idea of promoting running safety, so when I found out about it (it was advertised on the track) I thought I’d go. Several track people would too. 

I asked Neil if he was interested. He was! He had been doing some running, and thought this would be a nice opportunity to do it in a bigger group. Even though the weather forecast wasn’t brilliant. 

He made sure to eat loads of carbs over lunch. And wondered what his outer layer should be. He was more scared of overheating than of getting wet. I went the other way. It would be a leisurely pace!

We found some more runners on the parking lot, and together went to the pub which was the meeting point. I recognised several people from the track. And Emma, the very fast Dutch lady. 

Group picture by the pub

After a while we set off. It was a leisurely pace! And one of the first things we did was do a little loop around Church Island. And it was dark, so it was difficult to appreciate how pretty it is, but I'm sure Neil got a little bit of an idea. He hadn't been!

On Church Island

We then ran along the main road to Llanfairpwll, and then back along the road higher up on the hill. That meant we were largely doing what had been my standard loop when I still lived in Menai Bridge (which uses trail where possible, though)! And upon leaving Llanfairpwll we were hit by a shower. I was a bit afraid that would make Neil regret his decision. But he didn’t! I was glad. 

After some 40 minutes we were back where we started. Most people left, but some 8 of us went for a swift half in the pub. That was nice! And then we dispersed again. 

This was the first time I ever ran with Neil! And we both liked it. So I’m sure that won’t have been the last time! 

Did this fundamentally change anything for how safe women feel when running alone in the dark? Not likely! But maybe we raised a tiny bit of awareness of the issue…

New parties, old parties

 It looks like the UK is getting a new political party. And I can see why people came up with that. In the olden days, you would have Labour and the Tories and there would be a clear difference between them. Since Labour has been elected into power for the first time in many years, we have had to conclude that the difference is now small.

I expected Labour to make changes. Get rid of the two child benefit cap, get rid of the laws that make almost any protest illegal, that sort of things. But what they did was leave these things in place, and instead push through reductions in benefits for disabled people. What is that about? Since when is Labour the party of wringing out the poor and kowtowing to the rich? 

It is not, of course, as if Labour and the Tories are the only parties in town. There still are the Lib Dems and the Greens. But I could imagine that someone like Zarah Sultana thinks the Lib Dems are not left-wing enough, and maybe she thinks the Greens think too much about the planet and not enough about humans (even though they, of course, depend entirely on the planet). I don't know! Speculating here.

I do think that Labour has sort of lost it credibility now. But I don't think that credibility is necessarily lost forever. Parties are not static. And I don't know what the effect would be of a new party. In a way it could split the left vote, but what leftie is going to vote Labour these days? Still; few new parties get out of the starting blocks properly, and even fewer manage to last for years.  But I can only wish this new party the best.

I thought it was striking that this happened in the week in which I found out that Dutch Labour as I knew it doesn't exist anymore. In the last election, they formed a so-called list combination with a Green party (‘GreenLeft’). And when early in the week I was having dinner with Jaco and Marjan I asked them if they knew if they would do the same thing for the upcoming elections. And they told me they had actually decided to merge! So in a way, neither of these parties still exists. I was a bit ashamed that I had missed that, but it turned out that it had happened really recently.

Logo of the combined parties

 

I really wish this new party all the best as well! And I think their future looks a lot more rosy than that of the new British party. After all, they are just a combination of two dyed-in-the-wool parties for whom the autumn elections are most certainly not going to be their first rodeo.

Time will tell how this all pans out. What will the situation be by the end of the year? How will the newly merged party have done in the elections? Will Starmer still be Prime Minister? Will the new British party be gaining momentum, or will it already have fizzled out? Will the Labour back benches have managed to bring the front benches back into line? It is anybody's guess!

A Climate of Truth

I should now know how to thrive in the Anthropocene. Last year, there was a public lecture with that title, by Mike Berners-Lee. I was a bit unsatisfied at the end of it, but his lecture had partially been a plug for a book that was about to come out. He said that if people wanted to know more, they could just read the book. You can put a lot more information in one of those than you can in a one hour lecture. So I ordered the book.

I've read it now. Does that mean I know how to thrive in the Anthropocene? Well, not really! He does provide an easy checklist at the end of the book, after he's explained in detail what he thinks is wrong with the world in what could be done about about it, and you can just start there, I suppose.

This checklist is six pages long. I can't repeat all of this! But he starts with politics. And I've been trying to vote in people who are kind to the planet since I was 18. So far it hasn't really worked. And I think most people I know vote along these lines as well. I don't think I live in a diverse world!

Next is media. He says you have to be very careful about which media you trust and fund, but my choices tend to get his OK. 

Then he gets to work. Here he turns a bit Rutger Bregman: he figures you should use your talents and energy for the good of the world. So don't get sucked into finance or corporate law or that sort of destructive jobs. I suppose that working at the university and telling young people about climate counts as the sort of job that at least tries to make a difference.

Next is activism, volunteering and giving. I try to do all that as well! I support a number of charities that I think actively try to make the world a better place, and I am active in the local sustainability movement. It hasn't quite had Greta Thunberg levels of effect, but well, most people are not Greta Thunberg.

The second last one is sustainable personal lifestyle. I actually sometimes get some shit for that! But I do my best. I take the train to get to the Netherlands, and I bike to work. I am a bit infamous for my cold house. 

He ends with: look after yourself. He says "enjoy and appreciate life where you can, because there is no point saving a role that's no fun to live in."

I suppose it was to be expected that me reading this book would be him preaching to the converted. Is there anything new in there? I suppose the most novel thing he does is bring out social pressure and calling people out. That is so un-British! He wants us all to give people who don't do what this book advises you to do a lot of stick for that. I'm not quite sure if that would help. Will they not just dig their heels in? And quite a lot of people live in social bubbles. I suppose I have "lefty" written on my forehead, so I am not likely to have friends who read the daily mirror, watch GB news and vote Tory or worse. So there won't be many people I could call out. But I will keep his words in mind next time I do hear a rightwing voice.

Even though I am not British, I am a bit hesitant about the calling out thing. I suppose you need to know when and how! I vividly remember calling out the misogyny in the underground community. That didn't work at all. I suspect it made things worse. You don't want that to happen if what is at stake is the planet. But I suppose someone needs to do it. Someone needs to start. Societal change does happen! The example I always use was that when I moved to Amsterdam, it was decidedly uncool to have light on your bike. When I left Amsterdam, it had become decidedly uncool to NOT have light on your bike. Did people call each other out? How did this change happen? I actually don't remember! But this is the sort of thing that we need to see when it comes to the planet. Flying for frivolous reasons is still socially accepted. Buying loads of stuff you don't need is still socially accepted. Having a regular bath is still socially accepted. Voting against the planet’s interest is still accepted. So many things are still socially accepted. And it takes us to hell in  a handcart.

Anyway. The next thing I should do is lend this book to someone on whom it might have a positive effect. I will keep an eye out for opportunities! It is a good word, so let it spread. Maybe it is not too late...

WWIII

I remember the end of history. What a good time that was! Things were generally fine, and they would only get better. Maybe not very spectacular, but very comfortable.

I don't know if you've noticed, but history didn't actually stop in the 90s. It inconsiderately trundled on! We then had Bush and Yeltsin and Rabin and it wasn't perfect, but nobody thought any of them would start a third world war, and after all, everything would only get better. Fast forward to now, and we have Trump and Putin and Netanyahu. Israel is engaged in a hot war with both the Palestinians and Iran, and the USA sees absolutely nothing wrong with that. Putin with his army is marching into Europe. There's war in Yemen and Sudan and Ethiopia and Myanmar. The US have been threatening Canada and Greenland. 

It is not difficult to imagine that these conflicts might spread even further or ignite in new places, and it doesn't have to get an awful lot worse before it meets the criteria for a world war. Is it unthinkable that the US decides that when Israel is already bombing Iran anyway, they might as well join in? Is it unthinkable that at some point the Chinese decide to pick a side in one of the conflicts and throw the Red Army at it? Or maybe they just figure that armed conflict is totally in fashion and invade Taiwan. With whatever consequences that will have. 

It is weird realising that a world war might not be far. And it feels a bit powerless. What are you going to do when a whole host of nations with nuclear arms are battling it out? I don't know! I'm just continuing with my life. Everyone around me is doing the same. But these are worrying times. I wonder how I will look back on them in five or 10 years’ time. Would the world still be recognisable by then? Only time will tell!

Again, depressing election news from the US

I had been feeling scared about the American elections for months. I was hoping it would turn out ok! But I feared it wouldn’t.

I remembered the 2016 elections, when I had more hope. I woke up, as usual, with Radio 4, so as soon as I awoke I heard the news. And my heart sank. 

This time I had less hope. So when I again woke up to the news, and heard it looked like Trump was winning, I was still sad but less shocked. 

What will this mean for America? And for Ukraine? And Gaza? And the rest of the world? We will have to see. I fear a lot of people will die directly because of Trump’s decisions. But he was fairly and squarely elected. 

You can tell I’m felling numb and fatalistic. But this too shall pass. We will need to hope for better things happening in four years’ time! 

Barely helping in Parc y Moch

I suppose I got distracted! Before I went to the Anglesey Barracks with Nick, I actually briefly helped out with a new Parc y Moch initiative. A call had gone out to say that they intended to erect another structure, but that they needed some more hands to do it. I have hands! So I knew I couldn't stay long, but I showed up to see if I could contribute in the limited time I had.

I managed to be slightly useful! Soon after I arrived, Harri showed up with two other gentlemen, and our first task was to carry two tree trunks to the location of the structure. And that obviously is easier to do with four people than with three.

When we got to the location of the structure, I saw there were six concrete blocks sunk into the ground, with a piece of screw thread sticking out. My next job was to clean the threads with a metal brush, as the concrete had obviously got into that. And soon we had all of them so clean a nut would go all the way down. But that sort of was what I had time for. Luckily, Harri kept an eye on his phone, and said there were more people coming. I am sure they managed to put up the vertical beams! I hope to find out soon how it all turned out. I suppose my contribution was very limited, but it was better than nothing!

 

Invisible women

When ‘invisible women’ came out and got attention in the press, I figured it was right up my street. I bought it. And then didn’t end up reading it for a long time. 

This year I’ve been on a reading spree. I started with books that I had lent or been given. And when I got through that pile I started on this one. 

So for those who haven’t heard of it: the front of the book sums it up. It’s all about data about women not being gathered, and therefore women not being taken into consideration. And this spans many fields. Maybe the most obvious one is medical research; a lot of it has historically been done on men only. And then you get a medical science, fit for men only. I think many of us have heard of the worse outcomes for women if they have a heart attack; if only men are studied, the symptoms are only recognised in men. And delayed diagnosis is bad. 

This book goes into countless examples more! Everything from public transport to pensions and public toilets and disaster relief. And because she covers so much, she has to rush through it all, but she has an extensive bibliography, so you can see what it’s based on. 

I suppose all women have felt examples like this in their lives. When people think of ‘people’, you often realise they were thinking of ‘men’. (And straight white able-bodied cisgender ones at that, but that’s a bigger topic than suits this post). If there is PPE available, it’s often in one-size-fits-blokes. If you get a race T-shirt, it’s always a man’s cut. One’s line manager who walks into a meeting, sees three or four women sitting together, and immediately comments the women are banding together, and should he be worried? He’s seen three or four men sitting together countless many times, but that never solicited a response. I saw an interesting advertisement for volunteers for research on fitness. Then I read on and noticed they only wanted men. That was soon followed by a more inclusive one! Maybe there had been so much backlash they had to redesign their project. Phrases like ‘the world and his wife’. Or ‘there was a fire, and somebody’s wife died’. And so on. 

It was an interesting read! Not happy reading, obviously, but good to get an idea of the extent of the problem. And I know the bibliography will be aging, but once you have one article to start with, you can follow the trail. 

I would recommend this book to everyone! Especially men. They are more likely to not quite be aware of this. And it’s a good read! 

Britain on fire

It’s a scary time! The news is full of right wing mobs who are attacking mosques and hotels, and arbitrary businesses run by muslims. It is clear the mobs only needed an excuse.

I suppose everyone knows what's going on, but for that exception who doesn't know what I'm talking about: on July 29th, there was an event in Southport where little kids (mostly girls) were dancing to music by Taylor Swift. For unknown reasons, a 17-year-old boy walked in with a knife and randomly started killing children. He also stabbed any adults who tried to stop him. Three girls are dead; one is, at the time of writing, still in hospital; and quite a number are recovering at home.

It seems that rumours started circulating quickly that this was a Muslim small boat refugee. It totally wasn't! This boy was Born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, and doesn't seem to be a Muslim at all, as most Rwandans aren't. But that didn't stop the hooligans who quickly started riots on the streets. And we are a week later now, and these riots are still going on. And everybody knows what the situation is by now, and that this was just one British-born individual doing awful things, but the hooligans don’t seem to care. They are still targeting non-white people and refugees and Muslims, and probably preferably people who are all that at the same time.

Imagine having fled war and persecution, and then ending up in some Holiday Inn or something like that, with a 700 strong mob outside who are smashing the windows, setting the building on fire, et cetera! Miraculously, it seems that in that incident, nobody in the building got hurt. But imagine the terror.

Violent racism must have been so close to the surface! This country is in a deplorable state. I suppose the Tories have spent well over a decade kicking a lot of people in the teeth. And the electorate has started to peacefully kick back, but one election doesn't undo many years of austerity and mismanagement. And now there are mobs out there looking for scapegoats.

There was a lady on the radio who couldn't get a dentist appointment, and who was frustrated that there were asylum seekers housed in hotels. She wanted public services for the likes of herself before she would be happy with money being spent on people she identified as strangers. So she didn’t condone that violent towards the asylum seekers, but she understood why people were angry. I suppose that's easier than being angry at politicians who have let the backlog build up so much that anyone seeking asylum here has to wait years for an outcome. And while you wait you can't work, and when you can't work you can't sort out your own accommodation. And most countries do manage to sort out sufficient dentistry for their population. Why can't the Brits? 

I'm not saying no one is thinking about the little girls anymore, and their families, but it is clear that there are scarily large numbers of people who indeed don't. And just want to create more pain.

The genie is well out of the bottle now. I think the Tories are quite smug about it. Let the Labour Government sort out the mess! Let them become unpopular due to disturbances of public order, while the seeds were sown by the previous governments. And I'm sure the genie will be put back, how much damage will be done by the time that happens? Time will tell…

Bystander training

The University provides a fair amount of training to its staff. Quite a lot of it is compulsory. And they recently had been developing bystander training. It focuses on how to react if you see any sexual assault or harassment take place. Unfortunately, university campuses are hotbeds for such behaviour, and it is important that as many people as possible know how to deal with it. 

An email came around that advertised sessions; most were online, but I figured it would be best to do that in person. There was one session for that, and I registered for it.

I got into the room and there was one bloke sitting there. He was another participant; he was from Nuclear Futures, and we just had a bit of a chat. It was already a few minutes after the intended starting time when a third person appeared. She was the instructor. She had had parking problems due to the resurfacing of one of the main roads on campus.

View from the building where it took place

We got through the training fairly quickly. There was an introduction on sexual assault; overlapped with our ‘responding to a disclosure of sexual assault’ online training. And there was something about general bystander effect; the strange group psychology you get when something clearly needs responding to, but everyone is too self-conscious to do it. We were shown some videos with actors pretending to be very ill on the street, and two out of the three actors were there for a long time before anyone bothered to see to them.

After that there were some suggestions of who could intervene, how you could intervene, and how the circumstances matter. And we were given some scenarios and asked how we would respond to it.

At the end we had a little discussion. I said that this training was clearly aimed at students. Was there a chance that a specific version for staff would be developed? And the instructor said she absolutely would love that, but she was working with limited support on a limited budget. She was not paid for by the university but by the Higher Education Funding Council Wales (HEFCW). And we were living proof of the fact that there isn't an awful lot of interest from the staff. Only two people coming to the only in-person session! She said most online sessions only had three or four participants. I found that painful. So many people think this is not worth their time!

She said interest among students was bigger. I could imagine so. Sexual misbehaviour is often closely linked to alcohol use, and we the staff don't see the students in an alcoholic configuration. They do see each other in situations like that. (I know it also happens in lecture rooms and student accommodation and the field and all kinds of places like that, but I suspect there is just more of it in social situations where alcohol is involved.) So maybe this training might as well stay as it is for the time being. It is reaching it target audience. But I do not think it is a good look on either University management, or the academic staff, that they have so little interest in this…

Climate festival moss walk

I didn’t know how many people would be attracted to a moss walk at a local climate festival. But the answer was: a lot! Luckily, the organisers had a lot of hand lenses to hand out. And we started out right by the community centre. Emily, who was leading this, had gathered some moss, and handed it out. She made sure that everyone knew how to use a hand lens, and asked some questions that made us really look at the moss we were holding. And then we were ready to venture into the wider world.

Soon a veritable crowd walked over the bicycle path towards the more shaded parts thereof. Under the trees, Emily found another species, and had us all look at it. And she found a beautiful thallose liverwort on a tree.

The moss crowd

A beautiful moss

The thallose liverwort 

A bit further on there was a small stream by the path, and that led to other species growing there. And then there was another shaded part that led towards the old railway tunnel. I was just aiming my hand lens at everything mossy or liverworty I could find. And a few lichens. These are cool too! At some point Alys, the other lady who lead this, said “this is what you get on a moss walk; lots of people stuck to a wall” and it was true. But we all had a whale of a time stuck to that wall!

Under an old railway bridge 

Liverwort on the left, moss on the right 

The wall that had a lot to offer

At the end Emily asked us what we had remembered. Not many species names, to be honest. But that was okay! We had all enjoyed ourselves. And now it was time to get back to the community centre. The next thing on the agenda was my talk!

2024 Climate Festival

The 2024 climate festival was approaching rapidly! And Chris, the local spider in the web, seemed to have the organisation formally under control. My task now was only to prepare a presentation. And there were two of us presenting, so the idea was as well to make sure the two talks combined well.

We had good intentions! We had a phone call. And I said I would send her my slides from last year, and then she would send me a draft of what she would present. And then we could tweak according to need. But life got in the way, and I had to finalise my slides in the very bank holiday weekend of the festival, without having seen what my co-presenter had in mind. But at least I knew she was a biologist with an interest in extinctions.

Preparing the slides

The festival started at 11. I decided to show up shortly afterwards. I wasn't talking until 1 pm, but there was a moss walk at 11:30. I like moss! So I wanted to join.

When I got there it was already very busy. Such a good sight! And the moss walk was very popular as well; there was a veritable herd of us heading up the bicycle path, with hand lenses around our necks. It was run by the same ladies who had been talking about moss at the event in Penrhyndeudraeth. It was great fun! I will dedicate a separate blog post to that.

Busy already! Pic by Gwyrddni

The stands outside the community centre 

When we got back it was almost time for me to present. And there was a good crowd in the side room where that would take place! Some familiar faces from last year, but also quite some additional ones. And I was really glad that when I spoke, they would just interrupt me for questions. It got very lively! I really enjoyed it. And there also was discussion afterwards.

My talk; pic by Gwyrddni

Then the other lady, Alison, spoke. What she said was also very interesting. Her main message wasn't actually about extinctions. What actually argued is that we know enough to know what to do to prevent them. And that is where the gains can be made. Of course you can do more research on extinction; different locations, different species, new extensions due to changing circumstance. But what will that get you? More knowledge, and nothing happening. She argues scientists should increasingly get out of science and focus their energy on making those with the power to actually change things do so. I think she has a point!

Her talk and the following discussion overran a bit. The next thing on the timetable was a climate quiz, but a lot of people had run out of steam by this time. I knew the lady who had organised it, so I wanted to participate. We all took a little bit of time out in the fresh air, where I found my fellow bike enthusiast Pete. And then we went back into the admittedly stuffy room for the quiz. There were only three participants! But we had fun. And I won a pencil.

By then the whole event had come to an end. We helped Chris put the room back to the state he had found it in. And then I went home.

We will still have Chris for another year with another festival. And after that his funding will run out. He hopes that by then, we will be able to do it without him. But we are all people with busy jobs! I find it really helps that he just regularly calls meetings. If you wait for us to do that, we wait until we have time for that sort of thing, and that never happens. Oh well. We have another year to think about this and see how we can solve this. We might just sit together at the next climate festival, and put dates in the diary for a whole year worth of meetings. And then make it happen with volunteers only. That would be ideal!

Badly organised day in the field

We had one more field day in the diary in our "geology of Anglesey" module. It's a day that often clashes with the dissertation presentations, so I have missed it several times. This year I was available. I didn't know if Dei wanted me to be there or not. He is very busy, so he sometimes needs a bit of prompting. I started mailing him to ask what the plan was. He just asked if Jaco and I were available. I confirmed. 

I didn’t hear anything so I assumed he didn’t need me. But on Sunday I decided to check anyway. The trip was Monday! It turned out he needed me anyway. He said I might as well meet at the beach. He specified the car park. 

I got there, surprised to not see Jaco’s car. He tends to be early. I got into my welly boots and had a coffee. Nobody appeared. It was a bit like an earlier trip, where Dei had figured wrongly I wasn’t coming, so just left me to my own devices on this same car park, while the others were on the other one. I figured that if nobody would show up half an hour in I would just go home. If you want me to contribute to your trip, then at least have the decency to tell me beforehand (during working hours), and direct me to the actual RV! 

I checked my phone. I had a missed call from Dei. I phoned back. They were indeed at the other car park. Dei said I might as well stay there; the group would walk past on the way to the beach. But I didn’t. I figured it was bad enough I had been sent to the wrong place. If I would just tag along on the way, I thought the message would be that men explain geology, and women tag along as assistants. Not on my watch. I got there just as Jaco was about to start his spiel. 

The first half of the trip is just Jaco running around with his hands in the air, being totally absorbed in the geology. He does it well! But I was still a bit grumpy. And I made sure to tell Dei that I wasn't pleased with how things had been going, and I expected better from him in the future. I hope that helps.

Beautiful rock

When Jaco had pointed out everything he wanted to point out we decided to have lunch. We figured a little grassy field in the dunes would probably be the most sheltered spot. It was indeed very pleasant!

After lunch the students were tasked with actually measuring the orientation of the strata. They tend to not have done this before, so in the beginning they struggle a bit. We each took a few students under our wing. And we clambered over the rocks to find good places to measure. The weather was nice, I felt useful, and my students were good company. My mood brightened again.

Lovely rock pool

We worked quite fast. In not too much time we were finished! And then we admired a few seals who had swum into the bay.

When all the measurements are done, Jaco tends to collate them, and discuss with the students what it means. But I was thinking of the dissertation presentations that were nigh, and for which I had a lot of preparations to do. I figured I might let Jaco do the data spiel without me. We would walk past my car anyway! So I peeled off. Does that mean I was now doing to myself what I had been grumpy about Dei doing to me? You could argue it is. Women don't explain the results to you. But it felt different as the decision was mine. It is not the same if I am just not deemed important enough to even know where we are meeting!

Altogether I left in good spirits. And that's the important bit. The day started shit, but luckily some stunning geology in the sun with nice people sorted it out. As it should!

Cycle to work day

At the end of the citizens’ assemblies for sustainability, some subgroups were formed. They dealt with specific topics, such as energy, housing, transport, food growing, et cetera. And I ended up in the transport group. And one of our ideas had been a ‘cycle to work day’, when some of us in the transport group would cycle in at a particular time, and hope to inspire lots of people who normally take the car to join us. 

Reality was a bit stubborn. No new commuters showed interest. In the end it was Pete and me, who were the ringleaders, and an additional couple who bike everywhere anyway as well. I know the bloke as he works in the School of Natural Sciences, and his partner I know from Welsh class. They are lovely! But they also are the converted.

We decided we could just use it as a publicity event. Chris, our facilitator, showed up to take pictures, and the idea was that, upon arrival in Bangor, we would get interviewed on camera. They could use the footage to try to spread the word! If we do it again, maybe people will have seen the footage, and might be more inclined to give it a go.

Pete and me gathering in Bethesda. Pic by Chris

The full team. Pic by Chris

In the worst case, we just had a nice social ride to Bangor! Pete and me just politely followed the route. The others either peeled off because they needed to get to a different part of town, or took a detour as they thought that otherwise they wouldn't get enough exercise. As I said; they bike everywhere anyway!

It was Pete and I doing the interviews in Bangor. I was doing them in Welsh, and Pete was doing them in English. He was a bit more fluent! But I hope they got some useful footage out of us. 

It would be nice if we could inspire a few more people to give it a try. It is actually really nice to commute by bike. It's not just an environmental issue. The route is very beautiful. And it keeps me fitter than ever before. And I never have to worry about parking! Surely, all of that together could convince a few more people…

Two applications in the pipeline

It's the calm before the storm! In two consecutive weeks, I have sent out two very important applications. They have both, in a way, been approximately five years in the making, and they matter. So now I get a few months of respite before I find out whether they have been successful.

The first one was my application for promotion to senior lecturer. I got my permanent contract as lecturer in the last days of 2017. And I didn't realise it at the time, but lecturers seem to come in two flavours: lecturer one and lecturer two. And I had become lecturer one. My line manager at the time told me after a while I should apply for lecturer two. I did that, and it was successful. So in 2019, I had my last promotion! And that means that it took me five years to apply for the next step. And it is the big one. Firstly; the increase in salary is a lot bigger than it is between lecturer one and two, or between senior lecturer and reader. I'm not sure about professors; I think they can negotiate their salary, and are not on some standard scale. They might not actually give me the pay increase even if the application is successful, but that is a topic for another post.

The other reason why it is a big step is that it is where most women fall by the wayside. We hire female lecturers by the dozen! But few make it to senior lecturer. And given that that is the case, even fewer make it beyond senior lecturer. So if I get this, I have escaped the woman trap. I have kicked through where the glass ceiling is thickest! That is important to me. I will not have let the job wear me down. Since I started working here, I have seen five women quit. To the best of my knowledge, four of these were lecturers; one was either a senior lecturer or reader. The only man I have seen quit before reaching the stage of professor was the husband of one of these women! When she got angry and quit, she organised a job elsewhere both for herself and for him. So there's your leaking pipeline in action. I hope I am being part of the solution, and a role model for the women coming after me. Women are not just the most junior staff! I know much more work has been done by our three female professors, but smaller achievements count too. 

The Athena Swan application matters for the School. To be entirely honest, I'm not sure what the consequences would be if we wouldn't have an Athena Swan award. I know there has been talk of potentially, departments that don't have accreditation not being allowed to apply for certain types of funding, but I don't think that is reality (yet). But it certainly would look bad! We got our first accreditation in 2018, and if we are successful this time, we will be okay until 2029. We can apply for the next level up; silver, any time we want, but I think we now need a bit of time to let the dust settle, and execute our action plan. You can't get silver until enough time has passed that shows you have made progress since your bronze!

I expect the outcome of both applications in June latest. Fingers crossed!

Athena Swan in high gear

The deadline for applying for our Athena Swan award was getting closer and closer. And there was still a lot to do! So after things such as fieldwork and applying for promotion I would still do the occasional things that really need doing, like dealing with my master student, but otherwise I was full-time on the application. During the day. During the evening. In the weekends. It was exhausting, but at least I knew it would be temporary. And it felt good to have some help.

On the topic of my own promotion, by the way; I figured I would be a fool to sacrifice my own career to that of the School; I basically had done that before by working myself a terrible RSI, only to be threatened with redundancy. And I wasn't keen on repeating anything like that. Hence that when I received feedback from my line manager, I prioritised my own promotion application over the Athena Swan application of the School, and spent a Saturday on that. 

I would feel so good once I would have submitted the Athena Swan application! And then, of course, the wait is on to see if it would be granted. If it is, that would be fab. If it isn't, we get feedback, and the opportunity to resubmit within six months. But at least these are not the busiest six months of the academic year. In winter, for instance, I was already working on the application, but I was so bogged down with marking work that I got very little else done. And that is one of the reasons why it comes down to the last minute now. With a resubmission I suspect less of that. Wish me luck for the final sprint!

International Women’s Day 2024

When I saw the announcement of the Bangor University International Women's Day celebration, I was a bit underwhelmed. It was basically just one hour in a big lecture theatre; there would be a talk by two speakers, and then the opportunity for questions. The speakers were fabulous; they were both from the School of Oceans Sciences. They were one of our new professors, and one of the students. And they would talk about encouraging diversity in science. So as the EDI lead in the school, and as a person who finds this sort of thing important, and as someone who likes to stand by her fellow female ocean scientists, I decided to go.

When I was looking for a place to park my bike I saw the lady from HR, which is the one who is helping me with my Athena Swan application, approach the building. She had organised the event, so I knew where she was going. So a bit later I walked into the lecture room. I was a bit early, but that was okay. But I was a bit shocked by the big echoing hall, with up until then only two people in it. Ali from HR, and pro vice chancellor for EDI: Andrew Edwards. Only these two! That was not very promising.

Soon a few more people appeared: one of the speakers, the EDI lead of the College, the Head of School… all people who basically couldn't not be here because of their function. And after that, a few people came in who were just there because they had chosen to. But this was one of the biggest lecture theatres in the university!

Something unexpected happened; Andrew is not only the highest authority on EDI in the university, but he is also the father of the colleague who had recently gone on parental leave! And he was bursting with pride when he showed me a picture of the baby asleep on his lap. That was so sweet.

When it was time, Andrew opened the event. Bilingually, of course. Then Morag, the EDI lead of the college, introduced the two speakers: Yueng and Kodi. And Yueng went first. By that time, there were about 25 people in the whole room, and that included everyone who was part of the organisation. I'm not quite sure how many staff and students we have, but my guess is about 1600 and 10,000.

Yueng basically talked us through her life, with her youth in Singapore, her PhD at Scripps, and her landing in Wales. And how her career progressed there. And she talked us through the composition with regard to gender and ethnicity of the communities involved, and what that had meant to her.

Yueng speaking, with Kodi waiting her turn

Kodi, who is from the Caribbean, had a (so far) shorter life and career to reflect on, but she also talked to us through it. And then she, Yueng and Morag sat down on stage for a question and answer session. I kept track, and it its peak, we had 30 people in total in the room. It's a bit sad! And the ladies did an amazing job, but few people were there to appreciate it. The university still has work to do increasing its diversity, but I don't think this event made a noteworthy contribution to that!

The Q&A session: Morag, Yueng, Kodi

Ali takes a picture of the speakers with Andrew and Morag, with the VC looking on

Draft new action plan

In my previous blog post, I discussed the action plan of our 2018 Athena Swan bronze award application. But, of course, I also had to write an action plan for the new application. And this was even more important, so it was time I moved on with that.

I had a deadline, as I had an appointment with a lady from HR to go through my draft. Unfortunately, that meant weekend work, but so be it.

When I wrote the new action plan I was trying to keep it brief. The biggest change in application format was that you were not expected to write something the size of War and Peace this time. So no 12 pages! I was a bit scared that my draft was already four pages. We were only supposed to have 4 to 8 priorities. That they were almost a page each was not something I had done on purpose! But it was just that there often were many aspects to each priority, and I wanted to be able to wave our new action plan around to make the School stick to it; all aspects thereof.  

The first criticism I received all that I had so far not provided a qualitative rationale for my priorities. They were all based on data! Things such as application rates, promotion rates, degree classification, responses in staff and students surveys, et cetera. So I will now add a bit of a header to every priority, and say things such as that there currently is a #% gender gap in rate of applying for promotion among the academic staff. And then it makes sense that I have a priority to narrow that gap, and an action intended to effect that. 

To my slight disappointment, the second bit of feedback was that HR said that four pages was not enough. I would have to bulk it out! Make my priorities more detailed, and have more of them. She said I could also add a priority that was not based on data, like the other ones are. For instance; at the moment, all the data I have assumes that gender is a binary thing. So I can't realistically make any quantifiable promises about everyone for whom this does not hold, but at least I can acknowledge that I am aware of the issue, and can see some way of incorporating this sort of information in the future. And at the moment, the award is all about gender, while it makes sense to go intersectional. 

I have some work to do now, updating my action plan! And I hope I am quick about it. Providing the old and the new action plan is not enough; I also need to write the associated text! Luckily not all of it; I have asked the Head of School to provide his part. 

I already confessed that my teaching is undoubtedly already suffering because of the time this takes. It will stay that way for a while! I'm really glad that soon there will be a week of no teaching (except fieldwork). I hope I can manage to churn out most of the application then!

Students don’t have to choose between mr, miss and mrs anymore! How many don’t? That can go into a new priority. 

Students don't have to choose between Mr, Miss and Mrs anymore; Mx is also an option! 

Athena Swan: the old action plan

In 2018, our School applied for, and received, an Athena Swan bronze award. The application provided an overview of the School and its gender issues, and an action plan. This basically is a list of promised actions, and the criterion by which, at the end of the award period, it can be assessed whether the promise was kept or not. 

This action plan filled 12 pages. It was incredibly detailed! And in order to reapply, we need to give an overview of to what extent we have managed to fulfil all that. And when I say we, I mean I. I was parachuted in as the next EDI lead, so it was me who had to account for all these promises I was not involved in making.

Nobody had been keeping track of how we were doing with regard to this action plan over the past five years, so figuring out how we had been doing was quite a big task. I had to go around and ask everybody for information. Some of that was difficult to get, given that a lot of people had changed roles in the last five years. We didn't have the same Head of School anymore, or the same Director of Research, just to give a few examples. And some people had left altogether. Some people were a bit surprised that their roles were associated with a promise; they had never seen this before. So much for continuity!

When I was going to see a lady from HR about the topic, I showed her what I had achieved so far. She said she would go through it in detail later. But just superficially going through it there were already two interesting discussions that came up.

I had to assign each promise a colour: red, amber, or green. My interpretation was: red is for promises we had not managed to keep. Amber was for partially kept promises. And green for things we had actually managed to do. But HR saw it differently! My contact suggested red for things we had decided to abandon altogether. There was a promise that had something to do with the gender balance of people attending a public event. And we had decided that in this day and age, we couldn't just go and decide for other people what their gender was, and we also didn't think it was the polite thing to do to make them declare their gender. So that was deemed unfeasible. So although we had promised something quantitative about the gender balance, we didn't know whether we had achieved it. We might have! But red. 

I also had red for a promise we had completely failed at. Once every few years we do a staff survey, and the action plan had promised some action that would raise a certain positive response to 80%. We got stuck at 50%. Red! But HR thought amber, because at least we had done the action. It has not been done to such an extent that we had achieved the 80% positive response, but we had done it nonetheless. That's a partial success, so not red. That is a way of looking at it!

The other thing was, albeit related, a bit more philosophical. What is this application for? Is it for getting the desired award? In that case, a good strategy is to paint everything in as positive a light as we possibly can. Or is it for holding management to account? In that case, we should be as brutally honest as we can. If we make everything look as positive as possible, we might obscure areas that still require attention. And we both know that it is a bit of both. My contact confessed, however, that it was specifically the task of HR to support us in getting the award. And I understand why HR has received that brief. But it was interesting to talk about it!

So what was my evaluation? Of the 70 promises, I had 6 red, 26 ambers and 25 greens. And 13 outstanding. Will that (minus the outstanding; I will really have to chase these up) be enough for our bronze award reapplication? Stay tuned!