Overview
This online workshop will focus on understanding the challenges and developing ideas for engaging with, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities. In honour of Gypsy, Roma,Traveller History Month, (GRTHM 2023) we will share insights from ongoing outreach programmes. With focuses on health and living environment, areas where social inequities persist in many communities, social justice and education lies at the heart of our work. It will be demonstrated that that outreach activities can be fun and empower participants as agents of social change. There will be will leave plenty of time for participants to discuss their potential activities and network in small groups.Speakers
Katherine Manfred designed and led a programme funding by the RSC Outreach Fund to empower Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) communities to measure and understand air quality whilst an independent research fellow at the University of York’s Wolfson Atmospheric 91AV Laboratories. This project utilised Katherine’s expertise in analytical instrumentation for pollution monitoring while incorporating a citizen science approach to collecting and understanding data.Marie Bowers is a Romany Gypsy, a technician supporting Physiology teaching at the University of Glasgow and Project Lead for ‘Science Travels’. Her project seeks to engage members of Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showman and Boater (GTRSB) communities with STEM whilst raising the profiles of these communities within the University of Glasgow and beyond. Embedding ‘Science Travels’ within teaching across the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, Marie addresses difficult questions with regards to healthcare inequality, anti-Gypsyism, and the inclusion of GTRSB communities in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion discussions.
Iain Rowe is a Senior Lecturer in Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Aberdeen with considerable experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in biomedical sciences, nursing, pharmacy and medicine. He has been part of the academic support team for ’Science Travels’ and has experience in interprofessional student-led projects and quality improvement methodologies. He has a strong lab-based research background in electrophysiology with a focus on potassium channel biophysics, and the physiological regulation and pharmacological modulation of ion channels.
