Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Narender Ramnani is Professor of Neuroscience at Royal Holloway in the Department of Psychology. His research programme focuses on the anatomical organisation of the human brain and brain mechanisms that support learning and decision-making in the human brain. He is President Elect of the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) and prior to that was awarded lifetime BNA Honorary Membership.

He has been Vice Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Life Sciences and the Environment since April 2023, coordinating EDI across the five School Departments. His track record in EDI at Royal Holloway includes service on the University Access and Participation Plan Leadership Team, the University EDI Committee and various EDI working groups. He has chaired the Psychology Department Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team, leading to a Silver Award in 2016. He has also served on the University Race Equality Charter Self-Assessment Team continuously for over 10 years, contributing to multiple successful applications. Nationally, Professor Ramnani’s EDI governance experience includes membership of the Governance Committee that oversees Advance Higher Education’s national Race Equality Charter. He is also a member of the BBSRC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expert Advisory Group. Internationally, he is an Advisor to the ALBA Network (an organisation that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion in global neuroscience), as well as chair of ALBA’s EDI Data Working Group. Recently, his written and in person evidence submissions to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry on Diversity in STEM exposed severe and previously unknown under-representation of ethnic minorities in UKRI decision-making structures, and his recommendations have been included in the Committee reports and acknowledged by Government.

My name is Agostinho Pinnock, and I’ve been a lecturer in GeoHumanities in the Department of Geography since January 2023. As a cultural-historical-creative geographer, I explore the generative tensions and possibilities between, within and beyond Global/Black/Feminist/Postcolonial, Decolonial and Caribbean geographies, with specific attention to artmaking and the postcolonial nation. A secondary strand of my work focuses on joy-making in diverse Black communities.

I joined the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee in September. As EDI Lead (Geography), I’m interested in building a broad coalition of actors which can meaningfully embed EDI in Geography at Royal Holloway.

Prior to joining RH, I was a PGR member of the RACE Working Group of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG) and a member of the Loughborough University REACH (formerly BAME) Staff Network as well as a PGR member of the International Geographers’ Union (IGU), the College Art Association (CAA) and the Association of Art Historians (AAH). I co-convened the Global Black Geographies (GBG) Collective, which initially started as a Black transnational reading group of early career researchers (ECR), deploying a praxis of critically re-reading Black theorists and scholars through their inherently intersectional and decolonial origins. The group has since branched out into other critical areas of scholarship.

I am a lecturer in the department of Health Studies and as an ecologist in this department, I contribute the teaching and research that investigates the links and synergies between environmental health and human health. I am particularly interested in the contribution that insects such as pollinators and natural enemies of pests have on food security, well-being, and health.

As a woman, a mother, and a carer to my children I am particularly committed to addressing the impact of being a female and a parent on academic careers. I am also strongly committed to improve acceptance and inclusion of neurodiversity in every aspect of the academic life, and to remove the barriers that may prevent neurodivergent students and staff to achieving their goals.

I am a lecturer in the Department of Psychology since 2019, and am the Chair of the departmental EDI team since 2022. I am committed to promoting EDI and have been involved in a number of initiatives and organised various events (more details here). I founded and chaired an EDI committee in my previous institution (DEC, ENS, Paris), setting up a website and mentoring programme for staff and postgraduate students. I am also a member of the leadership team of Women in Cognitive Science Europe, and have led the organisation of events and speed mentoring sessions. At RH, I have created a webpage with EDI resources, helped set up and run our UG Research Bursary scheme (see Times Higher Education article) and the PEMENTOS mentoring programme. 

I am a senior lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences. I study how life’s simple building blocks are turned into increasingly complex molecules that ultimately yield life, via analysing meteorites, tiny space dusts and extraterrestrial samples returned to Earth by space missions.

As a community, we can be benefited from an environment of equality that is enriched by diverse experiences and voices. Coming from a minority ethnicity, and having experienced equality challenges through pregnancy and maternity, gender equality has always been central to both my personal and professional concerns. As such, I am committed to making inequalities visible through discussing challenges and difficulties at open platforms.

At Royal Holloway, I am particularly interested in addressing work-life-balance and supporting and advancing women’s careers. I have been the EDI Lead of the Department of Earth Sciences since July 2024, and in 2022-23 I was the Deputy Director in EDI of LSE. Prior to joining Royal Holloway, I was a School Listener at The Open University, UK with a focus on supporting the School on matter related to bullying, harassment, stress and mental health. The success of this role led to the preliminary development of the “School Dignity Listeners” at LSE. Externally, I have been a committee member in EDI of the Geochemistry Group (a special interest group of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Geological Society of London), and I am on NASA’s inaugural Astromaterials Allocation Review Board (AARB), devoted to making extraterrestrial samples accessible to Early Career Researchers.

I am a Reader in Animal Behaviour and Physiology, in the Department of Biological Sciences. My research and teaching are located at the interface of the physiology, sensory ecology and behaviour of vertebrates. I work with a number of vertebrate model systems including homing pigeons, mole rats, avian eggshells, and brood parasites. As a gay first-generation academic, I am particularly interested in understanding the impacts of economic and family background on academic careers.

The Athena Swan Charter is a framework that supports and transforms gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. It was established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, The School of Life Sciences and the Environment holds a number of Departmental Athena SWAN awards which recognise the commitment of our School to address gender equality.

Departmental Silver

Department of Biological Sciences

Department of Geography

Department of Psychology

Departmental Bronze

Department of Earth Sciences