The Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Committee meets fortnightly within the department. The committee is open to all and if you wish to join please contact the chair Shiho Kobayashi.
In 2018 the ARI was awarded the Juno Practitioner status where we have demonstrated that as a department we provide a ‘robust organisational framework to deliver equality of opportunity and reward’. More information on the IOP Juno project and the criteria for practitioner status can be found here.
The ARI holds a Departmental Athena SWAN Bronze award (2021) and LJMU holds an Institutional Athena Swan Bronze award. Together, these officially recognise that in addition to LJMU-wide policies, our department is working to ‘promote gender equality and to identify and address challenges particular to the department and discipline’. More information on the Athena Swan charter can be found here.
The role of the committee is to oversee improvements in the ARI environment and relations at all levels in the interests of wider equality and diversity by:
- Embracing the six Juno principles of good practice
- Collating and annually reviewing statistical and qualitative data and receiving reports from relevant areas, including gender-disaggregated information on undergraduate, post-graduate and post-doctoral admissions as well as job applications, appointments and promotions
- Researching areas of good practice across the sector and producing departmental ‘Good Practice’ guides
- Generating and implementing an Action Plan, including monitoring progress and regularly updating the plan based on feedback from staff and students
- Reporting back to the departmental management board and central university committees to try and affect wider change in the pursuit of advancements in equality and diversity
The ED&I Committee is made up of academic and support staff and students. The full committee is shown in the table below:
| Name | Photo | Email (+ljmu.ac.uk) | About | Training |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shiho Kobayashi |  |
S.Kobayashi@ | Shiho is the ED&I lead at the Astrophysics Research Institute | Transgender awareness workshop. |
| Chris Copperwheat |  |
C.M.Copperwheat@ | Chris is the Liverpool Telescope Astronomer in Charge. | Unconscious bias workshop. |
| Danielle Coogan |  |
D.Coogan@ | Danielle is an administrative assistant at LJMU since 2014 and has previously worked in student support at UoL. Daniele is an ARI Listener |
Unconscious Bias Workshop. MHFA Training (Half Day). Counselling administrator at UoL. Suicide Awareness Training. |
| Flo Wragg | F.E.Wragg@2020. | Flo is a PhD student at the ARI | ||
| Manisha Shrestha |  |
M.Shrestha@ | Manisha is a PDRA conducting time domain polarimetry mostly focusing on gamma ray bursts. |
Unconscious bias workshop. Transgender awareness workshop. Race equality workshop
|
| Matt Darnley |  |
M.J.Darnley@ |
Matt is Head of Teaching at the ARI and has been at LJMU since 2001. Matt is the ARI AthenaSWAN lead and a member of the LJMU AthenaSWAN working group Matt is an ARI Listener |
IoP unconscious bias training. ILM Development Programme in Coaching & Mentoring. Transgender awareness workshop. |
| Phil James | P.A.James@ |
Phil is the Head of the Astrophysics Research Institute. Phil is an ARI Listener |
|
|
| Ian McCarthy | G.McCarthy@ | Interim Head of ARI | ||
| Scarlett Royle | S.Royle@2021 | Scarlett is a PhD student at the ARI | ||
| David Law | D.J.Law@2021 | David is a PhD student at the ARI | ||
| K-Ryan Hinds | K.C.Hinds@2021 | K-Ryan is a PhD student at the ARI | ||
| Stev Ardern | s.ardern@2020 | Stev is a distance learning MSc student | ||
| Caroline Wilkinson | c.m.wilkinson@ | Head of Liverpool School of Art and Design |