
Recent Faculty EDI events
FEDIC is currently working on:
- Student attainment and progression
- Teaching sensitive issues
- Faculty EDI website.
School and Department EDI initiative highlights
- SHTM started a monthly communication on wellbeing (SHTM Wellbeing Monthly) with resources, tips, and events relevant to staff welfare - led by wellbeing champion.
- SBS had a very successful Athena SWAN Annual Lecture event presented by Dame Ann Limb who is newly appointed Pro-Chancellor University of Surrey, Chair at The UK Innovation Corridor, a British educationalist, business leader, and philanthropist.
- SBS have launched an initiative for International Women's Day and Women's History Month 'Celebrating the Women of Surrey Business School' featuring women Research Centre Directors.
- Sociology and GSA jointly organised a performance by by ground-breaking theatre company Clean Break: A thought-provoking show highlighting the often-untold stories of women and criminalisation.
- Politics invited Dr Koen Slootmaeckers, Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the Department of International Politics at City, University of London, to talk about the symbolism of LGBT rights in contemporary politics. Drawing on his decade long research in the EU enlargement process and its impact of LGBT politics and lived realities, Dr Slootmaeckers critically engages with the idea of progress and asks What is progress? When can we celebrate that progress has been made? And if there is progress, progress for whom?
- Initiated by the students of GSA, who wanted to see more of a physical representation of our commitment to a diverse and inclusive culture, there now are three different style inclusive flags in the GSA foyer. The three flags GSA now proudly fly in their foyer is the pride progress flag, the black lives matter flag, and a neurodiversity flag.
Initiatives in 2022
- At GSA a scholarship has been set up by Ella Balinska, GSA’s BA Acting graduate, for a first year global majority student on the BA Acting course. This year the first student received the scholarship and completed his first year.
- School of Law organised lunchtime lawyer series ensuring the panel speakers represent different protected characteristics. The series addressed issues on different EDI aspects.
- Undergraduate sociology society ‘SocSoc’ organised a quiz for International Women’s Day for staff and students on Tuesday 8th March. Winning team received £5 per member to donate to a woman’s based charity.
- In celebration of IWD2022, SHTM organised an exhibition with a display of women role models at all levels throughout the month of March.
- In DMM, Film Production and Broadcast Engineering team coordinated the visit of a £50M outside broadcast vehicle, with professional crews from CTV and their collaborating industry partners, to hold a series of hands-on workshops for students, and for visiting school parties from diverse communities, in support of diversifying recruitment and awareness of the subject area.
- Department of Politics organised an Online Seminar ‘Voting for Disabled Candidates' with Dr Stefanie Reher , University of Strathclyde.
- SBS celebrated International Women’s Day by organising a talk on ‘Creating your own Stories: Lessons from Inspirational Women’.
- SLL held a compulsory Race Equity Training day for all staff.
- Economics are leading a significant piece of econometrics analysis of awarding gap data.
- GSA are commencing a research project on the creation of a signed performance system for autistic audiences.
FASS International Women's Day 2023 event
10 together: coffee with the women of the FASS leadership team
On Wednesday 8 March 2023, 10 women of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) leadership team got together to commemorate International Women’s Day. The event was hosted by Louise Power, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager for the Guildford School of Acting (GSA).
Black History Month events
Department of Sociology has organised a special edition of Dialogues: Understanding and Challenging Intersectional Inequalities for Black women in education.
GSA has organised a Q&A with Karen Arthur on BHM, Menopause, Identity, self-expression and creativity. Chaired by Catherine McNamara.

Black History Month teaching initiative
Black History Month (BHM) was founded by Carter G. Woodson in the United States with the purpose of recognising the contribution of Black African and Caribbean people throughout history and its importance in the world today. The British version was introduced by Akyaaba Addai Sebo and established in 1987. It has since become an annual event that has evolved rapidly over the years into a celebration of black culture and diversity.
We would like our teaching community to engage with our BHM teaching initiative to celebrate Black History Month by acknowledging the significant contribution that Black people have made to each of our disciplines. Through this initiative, we want to combine a celebration of Black culture with a recognition of the community’s role in history, which directly affects the foundation of the content of our teaching.
In FASS, we are exploring the following topics:
- Study variations of oral languages- African American/British English, Africanisms in English, influences from the Caribbean on language
- Examine African diaspora inclusion in other countries e.g. Afro-Latinos
- Analyse the works of Black authors and poets
- Diversify reading lists and create work from Black playwrights, poets, directors
- Translate spoken word/poetry from Black authors
- Discuss wider topics explored by Black authors, e.g. colourism, intersection of identities (faith, class, gender, sexuality etc.)
- Study the journey of Black-owned businesses
- Exploring race, gender and policing
- Discuss the experience of Black British actors in the industry
- Analyse African/Caribbean filmmaking with film screening
- Explore forms of dance originating from African diaspora

