Diversity Days 2024: Reframing Excellence – for more diversity in academia

As part of the Diversity Days 2024, the MIN faculty and the Clusters of Excellence CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter, CLICCS, Quantum Universe and Understanding Written Artefacts are organizing an input and discussion panel on diversity in academia. The event, aimed at students, teaching staff, researchers and TVP employees, is held in English.

Abstract:
Universities are striving to become more diverse to reflect our social reality. However, currently the chances of succeeding in our academic system depend heavily on various social variables and resources of the individual. Against this background, this event will examine the concept of „academic excellence“ and its impact on diversity.

Recent initiatives such as the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) have pointed out that our current definition of excellence is extremely one-dimensional and only offers a very limited understanding of what skills really make up a good researcher.

How can our selection criteria in hiring procedures go beyond a mere focus on impact factors and publication numbers (that are often biased in itself)? The academic world of tomorrow needs leaders & teachers, inspired innovators, social entrepreneurs, and effective communicators. Yet the skills needed to take up these roles are still largely undervalued in academia. How are other countries faring? What can we learn from them? How can we redefine excellence in the future?

After a short input by Zen Faulkes, Program Director of DORA, we will brainstorm together and discuss these questions.

About the speaker:
Faulkes brings his extensive academic, administrative, and leadership experience to the role of DORA Program Director. After earning his Doctorate in Biology from the University of Victoria (Canada) in 1996, he went on to become a graduate program coordinator as an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Texas-Pan American (USA). From 2015 to 2020, Faulkes served as a Professor of Biology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (USA) before moving on to become Assistant Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Science at McMaster University (Canada).

In addition to his background in academia, Faulkes has been an active advocate for responsible scholarly practices for over 20 years. He has written articles about authorship disputes, post-publication peer review, and science crowdfunding, and organized roundtables on predatory publishing and institutions dictating where their researchers can publish — the latter for DORA’s tenth anniversary.

Registration link: https://www.min.uni-hamburg.de/en/ueber-die-fakultaet/gleichstellung/diversity/diversity-tage-uhh/anmeldeformular.html