Tag: teach-in

Teach Inn at the Packhorse – 2020 edition

Following our successful Teach Inn sessions over the last two strikes, we are arranging another series of alternative teach-ins during the course of the strike. This series is open to all: students, non-academic staff, and academic staff. We hope that this series will help us to learn about each other, the issues we face and will allow us to come to a better mutual understanding to help us build strength and solidarity. Some talks are intended to be tasters for different academic disciplines while others address the current dispute and general conditions in higher education more specifically.

Thanks to the generous support of the Student Union, all teach inns will take place at the Packhorse.

We still have spaces on the programme for volunteers to deliver further sessions in strike period – please use this sign-up sheet to add your name and talk title. Also, please send an e-mail at rhulucu2018 at gmail.com with the same information, so that we know who is who and can do some general coordinating.

Schedule for “Teach Inn at the Packhorse”

Monday, 24 February 
11-12, Sofia, Wellbeing
Tuesday, 25 February 
11 – 12, James, “Why the Post-Work Fully Automated Future is still going to feel like hard work!”
Wednesday, 26 February 
11-12, Dan, casualisation in HE
2-4pm, staff-student assembly to discuss the climate crisis; this event has been organised by the student union and will take place in the Boilerhouse Tank Room 2-4.
Monday, 2 March
11-12, Ed, “Foucault, Governmentality and University Life”
Tuesday, 3 March 
11-12, Bjoern, “Did Adam Smith teach us that greed is good?”
Wednesday, 4 March
11-12, Aled, “International industrial action over the war in Yemen”
Thursday, 5 March
11-12, independent study
Monday, 9 March 
11-12, SOAS On Tour, “Preventing Prevent” – and don’t miss our International Women’s Day gender pay gap picket! 
Tuesday, 10 March
11-12, session to discuss the new college strategy Green Paper
Wednesday, 11 March 
11-12, Michelle, “Words not deeds – 2019 Political party manifestos”
Thursday, 12 March 
11-12, Thomas, “Epistemic Justice and the University”
Friday, 13 March 
11-12,  Josie, “Zombie Dialectics and Resistance” – CANCELLED due to illness
Thursday, 19 March 
11-12, Tim, “What protest dogs can teach us about activism” – CANCELLED
Friday, 20 March 
11-12, Sofia, “Grounding to Rise: Meditation for Strikers” – CANCELLED

Teach Inn at the Packhorse – 2019 edition

We have arranged a series of alternative teach-ins during the course of the strike. This series is open to all: students, non-academic staff, and academic staff. We hope that this series will help us to learn about each other, the issues we face and will allow us to come to a better mutual understanding to help us build strength and solidarity. Thus, some talks are intended to be tasters for different academic disciplines while others address the current dispute and general conditions in higher education more specifically.

Thanks to the generous support of the Student Union, all teach inns will take place at the Packhorse.

We still have spaces on the programme for volunteers to deliver further sessions in strike period – please use this sign-up sheet to add your name and talk title. Also, please send an e-mail at rhulucu2018 at gmail.com with the same information, so that we know who is who and can do some general coordinating.

Schedule for “Teach Inn at the Packhorse”

Monday, 25 November
11am-12pm, a placard making session led by Donna. Basic materials provided but if you want to use a specific image or design, please print it and bring it with you. 
Tuesday, 26 November
11am-12pm, James, “How to Not Work”. 
Wednesday, 27 November
11.30am-12.30pm, Jeff, “Making Students Unemployable at £9250 a Year – the dumbing-down of English universities”. 
12.30am-13.30pm, Virpi, “Social marketing for student wellbeing”.
Thursday, 28 November
11am-12pm, Sofia, “Grounding to Rise Up: Meditation for Strikers”.
12:30pm-13:30pm, Judith, “Romanticism and Environmentalism”. 
Friday, 29 November
10.45am-11.30am, Liz, title tbc, on climate.
11.35am-12.25pm, Laurie, “Environmental Activism”.
Monday, 2 December
11.30am-12.30pm – Alfie, ‘How to Work for Google: Precarious Labour and Digital Politics Part 1’.
12:30am-13:30pm – David, ‘How to Work for Google: Precarious Labour and Digital Politics Part 2’.
Tuesday, 3 December
Rest day
Wednesday, 4 December
11am-12pm, Dan, “Protest song on the picket lines”.

Equalities Tea(ch)-in – 4th July

We are delighted to invite you to the Royal Holloway UCU Equalities Tea(ch)-in at 2pm-3.15pm, 4th July, in the Library Events room. Refreshments including ‘equality biscuits’ will be served. Students, staff and other members of the Royal Holloway community are most welcome.

Our planned programme is:

Jeff Frank, Professor of Economics (RHUL) and Equality Officer RHUL UCU

Introduction to current thinking on equalities, and the role of representation, promotion, pay and managerial authority. Best practice now is for ‘hard’ mechanisms for achieving equality in preference to ‘soft’ measures such as awards, ‘subconscious bias training’ and leadership training programmes, which simply don’t work. Jeff presents new data from the Essex experiment on gender pay, and argues that the same hard approach can be taken to diversity including ethnicity and LGBTQ students and staff. Mechanisms that assume that discrimination is only historical are naïve and inconsistent with reality.

Clem Jones, President, Student Union RHUL

Using a research framework provided by The Student Engagement Partnership (TSEP), the SU have been undertaking a piece of qualitative research regarding the educational experience of students of colour (SoC) at Royal Holloway in order to identify inequalities present and scope for improving inclusivity/diversity of representation at RH.

Emily Pfefer, doctoral researcher at Queen Mary, University of London

Emily will discuss her PhD thesis, ‘The Silence of Transparency: A Critical Analysis of the Relationship between the Organisational Salary Environment and the Gender and Gender/Ethnic Pay Gap in UK Higher Education.’ She explores how efforts to create transparency around pay by universities serve to conceal and silence questioning of the experience of inequality, with regards to gender and ethnicity. Her research is based on a mixed-method study of two research intensive universities in Southeast England, using secondary pay data, a survey of asking academics whether they discuss pay and semi-structured interviews of academics, trade union representatives and remuneration policy shapers.