“Disrupting Sameness in Dutch Academia” is an NWO-funded, trans-disciplinary consortium project involving five universities that is based at the University of Amsterdam. It comprises a team of five researchers, two university DEI officers, and a foundation of medical practitioners. It aims to produce research and practical interventions to help redress the underrepresentation of minoritized ethnic groups in Dutch Academia through an intersectional lens. Conceptually, we investigate the moments, mechanisms, and processes by which the reproduction of sameness happens in academic (work) cultures and daily settings, to then co-creatively develop strategies and interventions to disrupt sameness. We do so in three university settings: academic middle management; medicine; and STEM teaching.
The project kick-off workshop was held at the University of Amsterdam on 27 February 2024. We were very happy that the kick-off was attended by more than 50 participants from several institutions and organizations, from students to academics and practitioners. The purpose of the kick-off was three-fold: to present the overall project; to present the preliminary insights of our research agenda setting in each case site; and to elicit and gather feedback from participants and stakeholders on our research agendas for disrupting sameness in Dutch academia through dialogue. In our agenda setting, we use Priority Setting Partnerships (PSP), a methodology that draws on participatory action research-type approaches that lead with stakeholder interests and perspectives in setting research priorities.
Following a presentation of the overall project and research design by the principal investigator Olga Sooudi (UvA), there was a panel discussion on disrupting sameness. The panel was comprised of Marco de Carvalho Filho (RUG), Anne Martinez (RUG), and Alana Helberg-Proctor (UvA), and moderated by Edwina Wong (UvA), the project post-doc. While the discussion began with the panelists, many participants contributed and it turned into a very lively collective discussion.
This was followed by three presentations of the research agenda-setting insights in each case site by the respective work package leaders: Melina Czymoniewicz-Klippel (WUR) for STEM teaching, Chih-Chen Trista Lin (WUR) for middle management, and Megan Milota (UMCU) for medical education alongside Meka Abdi (UMCU), a medical student.
The kick-off workshop concluded with three break-out discussions corresponding to each research setting, which participants joined per their interests.
We would like to thank all participants for their time and energy in attending the kick-off, as well as for their openness, trust, and generosity in their contributions and critiques in the discussions. Thank you for thinking along with us and with each other. We hope that this is the beginning of a longer engagement and discussions together in the coming years. This kick-off summary is provided to all participants as well as stakeholders who wanted but were unable to attend the workshop to share an overview and update. We hope you find it interesting, as well as reflective of the discussions we had.