Campus Talks by Times Higher Education

Decolonisation has become a lightning rod for critics who accuse universities and colleges of being full of liberal ideologues, with a number of pundits up in arms about efforts to decolonise reading lists and the curriculum.  But for some scholars, decolonisation is merely a by-product of the work that they do, including our guest Farish Noor, a professor in the department of history in the Faculty of the Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Malaya in Malaysia and a professor in the Standards of Decision Making Across Cultures programme at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Despite its complexity, Noor says, decolonisation is essential to a comprehensive view of humanity. Many in academia doubt decolonisation's relevance for STEM subjects, but in this episode we’ll also hear from Brigitte Stenhouse, a lecturer in the history of mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at The Open University. She has overseen the creation of a database of original sources to give students a global and historical view of the discipline.

For international women's day, we spoke with two academics of colour about their experiences of being minority women in academia.   Henrika McCoy is the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Fellow in Services to Children and Families and associate professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. Henrika shares her experience of colleagues and students having erroneous expectations about her scholarship and background because she is a Black female academic. And she addresses the assumption that non-parent academics don’t have any caring responsibilities.  More from Henrika: Diversity statements: the good, the bad and the ugly Questions you should ask yourself about your role in institutional racism Yes, your university perpetuates racism against BAME academics: what can you do? Didar Zowghi is a professor of software engineering and a senior principal research scientist at CSIRO's Data61. She leads a research team in "Diversity and Inclusion in AI" and "Requirements Engineering for Responsible AI". She is also the leader of the National AI Centre’s think tank on diversity and inclusion in AI in Australia, emeritus professor at University of Technology Sydney and conjoint professor at the University of New South Wales. Didar speaks about about biases in AI systems, improving the gender imbalance among AI professionals and her journey from Iran to the upper echelons of the AI research community.   

Academia and activism are discussed, including the challenges of balancing them, oppressive systems within academia, and the importance of community-based work. The speakers reflect on parenting in academia, their academic journey, and efforts to tackle poverty. The effectiveness of providing free breakfast at a university is evaluated, and the importance of being agile and responsive in addressing poverty is emphasized.

A career in academia comes with a lot of components – some good and some not so good. In this episode we’re talking about topics that might seem like their on the periphery of the core elements of an academic career, but they’re crucial to your credibility among colleagues and your sense of well-being. Ray Crossman, president of Adler University in Chicago, shares his experience of being an out president and encourages others to be their true self on the job, warts and all. He's also got advice on upskilling through mentors and explains how university mission statements give subtle cues to LGBTQ+ academics on how supported they would feel on campus. Brian Bloch is a presentation and communication teacher associated with the University of Münster. Here he gives pointers on voice, body language, and English pronunciation. And he’ll give a conclusive answer to how to pronounce one of London’s most difficult-to-say tube stations. Read more career advice from your peers on THE Campus: How to progress in your academic career

The podcast explores the changing role of university leaders and the challenges they face. It discusses the importance of diversity in leadership and the tension between serving domestic and international students. The issue of affordable housing for students is also addressed, along with the significance of sustainability in institutional mission. The challenges and progress in women's leadership in higher education are discussed, including the presence of biases and the need for support.

Ruth Simmons was the first African American president of Brown University which she led for 11 years. Before that she was president at Smith College where she set up the first engineering programme at a women’s institution. She was recently called out of retirement to lead Prairie View A&M an historically black institution in southeast Texas. As she approaches the end of her tenure there, THE Campus editor Sara Custer interviewed her for THE Campus Live US. Here she speaks about her pioneering work to research Brown’s historical links to slavery, the future of affirmative action, legacy admissions and how to get more people that look like her into university leadership. 

How can faculty and staff address the real issues, however forbidden, that make students feel isolated and voiceless? When teams research difficult topics, how can they establish two-way, equitable participation with their community? Members of the teams that won the Times Higher Education 2021 Awards for Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community and Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion join us in this episode to discuss working with taboo and difficult topics. Anna Walas, faculty research impact officer and honorary research fellow in the Faculty of Arts at the  University of Nottingham, talks about her team’s research into gender-based violence. And Lindsay Morgan, a placement officer for the School of Arts & Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University and co-producer of Bleeding Soar, tells us about the campaign to increase awareness of period poverty around the world.   Related links: Website for the Bleedin' Soar campaign Website for the The Language of Hate Crime project "Talking about taboos: how to create an open atmosphere for discussing difficult subjects" by Lindsay Morgan "In this together: developing meaningful community engagement" by Anna Wales Resources from 2022 Times Higher Education Awards nominees   

Artificial intelligence has a lot of potential for higher education. It can automate onerous repetitive tasks for teachers, help researchers leapfrog mountains of data crunching and make higher education more accessible and personalised for students. But AI also presents risks, including biases that can become embedded into algorithms and a lack of transparency around data use. Though we may be a long way from understanding exactly how higher education can harness AI and machine learning’s great potential in a safe way, this episode's guests say that continuing to test and explore it is the only way to make progress. Join THE Campus editor Sara Custer and senior content curator Miranda Prynne as they speak with Ashok Goel, a professor of computer science and human-centered computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the developer of the first automated teaching assistant, as well as John Wu an assistant astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and an associate research scientist at Johns Hopkins University.   Find resources from your peers exploring the benefits and costs of AI in higher education on THE Campus.  

Even the most experienced faculty member could benefit from teaching advice from their peers. In this episode of the THE Campus podcast, we feature short tips from university educators around the world to create a mini teaching community in podcast form. And we speak with David Dodick, a sessional lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, about the the arts and humanities employability myth and common mistakes he's seen university lecturers make.   So sharpen your pencils and make sure your laptop is charged – prepare to get schooled on how to teach. Find more teaching resources in our THE Campus spotlight "Teaching 101: advice for university educators"   This episode is sponsored by Routledge. THE Campus listeners can use code THE20 before 22 October 2022 to get *20 per cent off* all orders.   

Education is often offered as a solution to tackling misinformation, particularly training in critical thinking and analytical skills. But what does that actually look like in the day to day running of a university? Or for the average higher education instructor not specialised in fields like media, politics or social sciences? And is there more that institutions could be doing to inform public policy and technology companies to help get ahead of the disinformation wave?  Phil Napoli the senior associate dean for faculty and research at the Sanford School of Public Policy and the director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy at Duke University shares his ideas about how universities can support local journalism and researchers can work with third parties to impact public policy.  And Simge Andi, a lecturer in quantitative Political Science at the University of Exeter, talks about her research into why people are vulnerable to misinformation and what she's learned from studying elections in Turkey.  This episode is sponsored by The Wall Street Journal. Visit wsj.com/timeshighereducation to learn more about integrating WSJ into your classes. And for more advice from your peers on what universities can do to fight fake news, check out our THE Campus spotlight: The role of higher education in separating fact from fiction.