On 11th February 2021, we advertised a Covid Realities webinar on ‘Post-graduate, early career researchers and COVID-19: challenging precarity and inequalities’.
We apologise for advertising the webinar without an acknowledgment to the vital work of Black women colleagues who wrote an Open Letter to UKRI, from which we quoted. This work was led by Dr Addy Adelaine, CEO of Ladders4Action and Accountability and Inclusion Researcher. The other signatures to the open letter were the following: Chisomo Kalinga, Medical and Health Humanities Researcher, Precarious Migrant; Furaha Asani: Health and Equalities Researcher, Precarious Migrant; Ruth Ngozika Agbakoba, Founder of the PhD Podcast promoting Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; Natasha Smith, Women’s Health Advocate, Patient Public Volunteer (PPV); Olumide Adisa, Gender and Domestic Abuse Researcher; Janine Francois, Cultural Activist and Researcher; Michelle King-Okoye, Health and Cultural Studies Researcher, Associate of Ladders4Action; Paulette Williams, Founder of Leading Routes; and Ruby Zelzer, Scientist and Health Researcher.
We also apologise for our failure to include a Black academic on the panel. Our actions and failures demonstrate the institutionalised problems that Black and minority ethnic academics face on a daily basis. We recognise that we have failed as allies, and we need to and will learn from this experience going forward. A central part of this will be reflecting on the outcomes of our actions; and how they contributed to processes of Black erasure; but also in making sure that we do better in the future.
We deeply apologise for the offence and distress our actions have caused.
Ruth Patrick, Kayleigh Garthwaite, and Maddy Power
