Update: #NoBystanders pledge; World AIDS Day stall and event; Campus North resources

Today: photo call for #NoBystanders campaign

To mark Anti-Bullying Week, we’re asking staff and students to come along for a photo call today at 14:15 in Holgate reception, and to pledge not to be a bystander to bullying and teasing language. The pledge is part of Stonewall’s #NoBystanders campaign.

Don’t be late!

#NoBystanders pledge


World AIDS Day stall

North Yorkshire AIDS Action logo

We will be holding a stall in Holgate to mark World AIDS Day on Monday 1 December, 12:00-14:00. Last year, we raised over £50 for North Yorkshire AIDS Action, a local charity that “provides support for people in North Yorkshire who are living with or affected by HIV” – let’s see if we can beat it this year!

If you’re available to help out on the stall, or willing to bake some cakes for us to sell, contact Andy.


Reminder: World AIDS Day event – Patent Fever: HIV/AIDS and the epidemic of intellectual property

World AIDS Day ribbon

Dr Mike Upton is a Mildred Blaxter Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London where his research focuses on HIV/AIDS, access to medicines and intellectual property. With a background in anthropology, his work draws connections between what is termed ‘the second enclosures’ of the intellectual commons, medical innovation and inequalities of access to treatment in the context of HIV/AIDS.

Dr Upton will introduce a screening of a short documentary on campaigns in South Africa for access to antiretroviral and tuberculosis treatment which will be followed by a question and answer session.

Emeritus Professor David Maughan Brown will introduce Dr Upton and chair the question and answer session. The event has been organised by the LGBT Staff Network as part of the University’s programme for Disability Week and will take place at 18:00 on Tuesday 2 December.

You can book a free ticket now.


Campus North minutes and resources

Campus North logo

The minutes from the Campus North meeting we hosted earlier in November have been uploaded to the LGBT Staff Network Moodle site. The minutes are accompanied by annexes containing institutional updates, the slides from the community engagement presentation (also below), and a handout on trans issues in higher education produced by Jess Bradley of Action for Trans* Health.


Grant available for Arts and Humanities Research Council 10th Anniversary Debates

AHRC logo

Grants of up to £7,500 are available from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to hold debate-style events to mark its tenth anniversary. The call is quoted below in full, with added emphasis. If you’re interested in collaborating on a proposal, contact Andy.

Next year marks the tenth anniversary of the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). To commemorate the occasion, the AHRC will oversee a programme of activities, each intended to showcase the best of the arts and humanities research community’s output since the council was founded. There will also be opportunities to celebrate the contribution of arts and humanities to national life, and to examine the potential of future work in these areas.

As part of this jubilee, a nationwide series of debates will be held on the overarching theme of “The Way We Live Now”. It is envisaged that each will address some facet of the topic, for example: The City; Identity; The Book; Faith; Diversity; The Nation; Space, or any other such aspect in accordance with the host institution’s particular expertise.

Debates will be structured so as to harness the combined input of a range of disciplines. A debate on ‘The City’, for example, could be led by specialists in human geography, history, archaeology, literature, linguistics, classics, among many other disciplines. Each discussion will feature three or four speakers, who will talk for around 15 – 20 minutes each. The format will allow plenty of time for audience involvement, and it is hoped that discourse will extend into the online sphere through live streaming and social media interaction.

The AHRC asks any HEI (or Independent Research Organisation) wishing to participate in this celebration to submit a short (1,000 word) expression of interest, giving details of the theme(s), speakers, facilities and support available to stage such an event. Up to £7,500 will be available for each debate, with matched funding expected from the host institutions. Funding in kind – such as charges for use of venues – can be included as an element of the host’s costs. Detailed guidance is available via the AHRC website.

The deadline for expressions of interest is 18 December 2014.


New LGBT pub: the Corner Pin

The Corner Pin on Tanner Row is becoming an LGBT pub, after having been taken over by Kelly Blair, who runs Thomas’s Bar and The Nags Head, two existing LGBT-friendly pubs/bars. The intention is for it to be a proper LGBT pub, bringing back the feel of the Little John, a popular LGBT bar on Castlegate that closed in 2011, and which has since been replaced by the Blue Boar. The pub opens on Friday 5 December with a performance by Barcode Zebra, a brilliant local band that identify as “soul-tinged pop funk”. For more information, see the Facebook page (temporarily renamed ‘Stan smith’!).


York LGBT History Month 2015

York LGBT History Month logo

York LGBT History Month is an independent organisation founded on the back of the highly successful York St John University-led, city-wide, collaborative 2014 campaign. The University will be contributing a number of events to York LGBT History Month 2015 (February), but it would be great to see faculties, directorates and departments across the university engaging with the campaign. The deadline is Friday 19 December. If you’re interested in putting on an event or working LGBT History Month into the curriculum, whether you have a well-formed idea or just willing, contact Andy.


Queer Media Festival

Queer Media logo

Dr Fiona Thompson, Chair of the LGBT Staff Network, has been invited to contribute to the Queer Media Festival in Manchester on Saturday 7 February, alongside a long list of interesting guests. The festival is part of the Queer Contact Festival, which is organised every February to coincide with LGBT History Month. The organisers describe the day as:

An exciting day of short films, performances and in-conversation events showcasing LGBT storytelling worldwide and including the launch of LGBT media award – the Janus Award in film and transmedia.

For more information and to book a ticket, see the event page.

Ynda Jas

Founding Secretary of the LGBT Staff Network and former Equality Champion for Registry, where I was based in the Academic Quality Support team. Also founder of York LGBTQ+ History and Non-binary London, and DJ coordinator at Bar Wotever, an iconic weekly queer cabaret event. They/them.

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8 Responses

  1. 19 January 2015

    […] at the University of Leeds. For an idea of what gets discussed at these meetings, take a look at the materials from the meeting we hosted and the report from the previous meeting at the University of Bradford. If interested, contact […]

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