Techne: Black Lives Matter

Techne stands in solidarity with those protesting the murder of George Floyd, and racist oppression and violence against the Black community in the USA, UK and around the world.

As supervisors, we seek to inspire success and support all students, from all backgrounds. As researchers, we tackle the important issues underpinning social and economic inequality and that stand in the way of justice and fairness. As a community, we share our views, values and culture, to learn from one another and deepen our understanding of the world, our role and purpose in it and how we can have a positive impact. We recognise that short statements are easy, and that longer-term work is vital and are committed to doing this work with our community. 

Our immediate activities include: 

• responding to calls for a discussion forum to support Black students during this time
• ensuring we are listening to and amplifying the Black scholars within our community 
• committing funds to support events and activities that make space for listening and learning
• committing funds to do further work to help support Black scholars now, and in the context of ongoing issues around recruitment and retention within academia 
  

These are only beginnings, and Techne management group will meet next week, and the representatives from each of our nine institutions will talk about the longer term work we will do.