I was proud to help lead the Global LGBT+ Innovation Jam, an initiative organized by IBM, Out & Equal and Workplace Pride. The discussions, and the survey conducted, helped to inform this new report on LGBT+ workplace inclusion.
A best methods approach to diversity and inclusion policy
In developing diversity and inclusion policy, HR-policymakers often copy the best practices of other organizations. But is this strategy effective? In this animation we introduce a different, more systematic method for policymakers to apply to their diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Kurt Lewin Institute Conference 2021
A year later than planned, but we were finally able to hold the Kurt Lewin Institute Conference on April 20 & 21, 2021. It was a great pleasure and honor to chair this online conference!
Keynote talks by Floor Rink, Steven Neuberg and Ellen Giebels
Four themes were highlighted this year:
Dealing with Differences - chaired by Marc Heerdink & Félice van Nunspeet
Political Psychology - chaired by Yasin Koç & Ruthie Pliskin
Motivation and Emotion - chaired by Joshua Tybur
The Psychology of Change - chaired by Jessie Koen & Wiebren Jansen
The combination of different topics and tracks led to many fruitful discussions and new overarching insights.
Rewarded for science communication!
Our research group at Utrecht University was one of the teams rewarded for our science communication efforts and received a grant from the pilot fund ‘Science communication by scientists: Appreciated!’ – set up by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
Netherlands Inclusiveness Monitor - Factsheet 2019-2020
All employees can participate and are valued for who they are, irrespective of gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. That is the key to being inclusive. The Netherlands Inclusiveness Monitor (NIM) investigates the initiatives that organizations take to create a more inclusive workplace. It connects these findings to the experiences of employees and provides organizations with evidence-based advice on which steps to take to become truly inclusive. On March 18 2021, we presented the latest findings on data from 20 Dutch private and public sector organizations and published a summary of findings in this handout.
Results indicate that organizations focus mostly on the selection, recruitment and inclusion of employees and less on the promotion and retention of employees. In addition, organizations could pay more attention to developing and implementing their policy in an integrated, systematic and evidence-based way. Practical recommendations are provided.
LGBTIQ+ Employee Resource Groups: What does the science say?
LGBTIQ+ employees face unique challenges at work such as suffering poorer mental and physical health than their heterosexual colleagues. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) can play an important role in supporting LGBTIQ+ employees and keeping them connected.
In this article for Workplace Pride, Erdem Meral and I review the academic literature on the LGBTIQ+ employee resource groups. We discuss what they are, what we know about their promises and pitfalls, and how they can be most effective, with the aim to contribute to evidence-based inclusion management in organizations.
SPSSI Grant-in-Aid
Together with Thekla Morgenroth (PI) and Ruthie Pliskin, I received a small research grant from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) to execute the project “The implications of non-stereotypical gender performance for the denial of trans identities.”
In this project, we examine how the gender/sex binary (i.e., an ideology that constructs gender as binary and following directly from biological sex) leads to the denial of identity to non-binary individuals and trans women and men.
LGBTQI+ Rights: On Modern Implicit Forms of Exclusion
This Monday, I will contribute to a webinar on LGBTQI+ rights. Psychologists who are member of the Dutch Association of psychologists can register HERE
Queering the Curriculum
For those of you who, like me, missed the latest Academia@WorkplacePride live webinar in the “Keeping Members Connected” series of the Workplace Pride Foundation, you can watch it HERE
The topic of academia and the inherent challenges for LGBTI persons studying or working within its many layers, is an area sorely in need of attention and discussion. After the inaugural webinar on the 24thof August 2020, Academia@WorkplacePride wants to make further progress and look more deeply into substantive topics.
“Queering the Curriculum”
This webinar focuses on the educational aspects of academia and in particular the curriculum. Is there an LGBTI lens on the curriculum? If so, what are the implications and is this as relevant in the STEM disciplines as it is in the humanities and the social sciences?
Speakers from the universities of Amsterdam and Leiden will discuss how they can be more inclusive on the basis of the following questions:
What does it mean to 'queer' a curriculum?
What is heteronormative in their discipline?
How do different faculties incorporate queer concepts?
Is the curriculum queered in the Netherlands just like as in other countries or are their national differences?
Event: Academia@WorkplacePride “Queering the Curriculum”
Date/Time: Monday, November 23, 2020: 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
Audience: Workplace Pride Members, stakeholders, and friends
Moderator: Dr. Andrew DJ Shield (Assistant Professor of
Migration History, Leiden University, Humanities)
Guest Speakers:
Prof.dr. Martine de Vries (Professor in Medical Ethics and Health Law at Leiden University Medical Center)
Dr. Marie-Louise Janssen (Lecturer in Gender and Sexuality studies at the University of Amsterdam)
Looi van Kessel (University Lecturer at Leiden University Centre for Arts in Society)
Travelling Concepts on Air
I highly recommend this podcast Travelling Concepts on Air by my colleagues Tessa Diphoorn and Brianne McGonigle-Leyh from the Utrecht Young Academy. Each week they interview academics from different disciplines on a particular concept (the first episode is on "War") and see whether it travels within and across disciplines. Exciting for anyone interested in interdisciplinarity!
