The former School of History, Art History and Philosophy (HAHP) at the University of Sussex has been recognised for its ongoing commitment to gender equality, with the accolade of an Athena SWAN bronze award.

HAHP’s bronze award – which will be valid for five years, until 2026 – acknowledges the School’s work to address unequal gender representation and the barriers to progression for women.

The HAHP Self-Assessment Team (SAT) were: Vinita Damodaran; Tom Davies; Flora Dennis; Jim Endersby; Deborah Jackson-Smith; Liz James; Jill Kirby; Jacob Norris; Claudia Siebrecht; Tanja Staehler; Kathleen Stock; David Tal; Paige Thompson; and Clive Webb.

They said: “This has been a real team effort that had to be completed during the pandemic, so it’s exciting to finally have it done.

“Of course, the real challenge begins now: to start addressing the inequalities revealed in our report.

“With luck, our bronze award will help provide the basis for the new School of Media, Arts and Humanities (MAH) to make a successful application for a silver award.”

HAHP is the second part of MAH to have gained Athena SWAN bronze; Media, Film and Music achieved it in November 2020.

Feedback on HAHP’s submission highlighted as good practice the creation of an EDI officer role, a senior academic who will be part of the School’s senior management team.

Miguel Maravall, chair of the institutional Sussex SAT, said: “Applications for Athena SWAN awards are a reflection of lots of work and thought put into addressing gender inequality.

“Importantly, they are also a call to action and a signal of our commitment to hold ourselves to the standard of our aspirations as an inclusive university.

“This award is a really well-deserved recognition of our colleagues’ ongoing initiatives in what was HAHP (now part of the School of Media, Arts and Humanities). I would like to thank everyone involved.”

Sharon Neal, Assistant Director of Culture and Inclusion in Human Resources, added: “Gender equality in higher education is about removing the obstacles faced by women, in particular, at major points of career development and progression, to create a fully inclusive university.

“For us Athena SWAN is an important part of the solution to addressing gender inequality at Sussex. It fits with our commitments to promote an inclusive culture and to close the gender pay gap.

"This latest application really was a team effort and I would like to congratulate the former School of History, Art History and Philosophy, who have made a really positive commitment to supporting gender equality through a number of initiatives.

“We also continue to make significant developments through our gender equality action plan, which brings together all of the institutional-level actions and initiatives to promote gender equality and reduce the gender pay gap at Sussex.”

All of the STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics) schools at Sussex currently have at least a bronze award. Since the Athena SWAN scheme – now run by Advance HE – was expanded to include non-STEMM disciplines, several other schools have been preparing for future submissions.

Sussex currently holds an institution-wide bronze award, which has just been renewed for five years. 

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