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International Women's Day Roundtable

When: —
Venue: Online

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Join us on International Women's Day on Wednesday 8 March as we come together to celebrate women's achievements and to reaffirm our commitment to women's equality.

#EmbraceEquity is the theme for 2023. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. The theme aims to get the world talking about why "equal opportunities are no longer enough".

We are joined by academics from the School of Business, Economics and Informatics for an online roundtable discussion on gender equality, education, knowledge and sustainable development.

Panel Speakers 

Dr. Pam Yeow (Chair) is Reader in Management at Birkbeck, University of London. Pam joined Birkbeck in 2016 as Programme Director of the Central Saint Martins-Birkbeck MBA. This programme is now in its fifth year and has been featured in numerous broadsheets and was shortlisted for innovation in business education by QS-Reimagine Education in 2018. Pam was appointed Assistant Dean - External Engagement in 2020 and is head of the newly established Centre for Professional Development within the School of Business, Economics and Informatics. Pam’s current research is on rethinking ethical consumerism and she has been funded by the Eastern ARC, among other funding bodies, to better understand the role of the householder in effecting sustainable change.

Nicola Bentham, is a PhD researcher in Organizational Psychology and a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the school of Organizational Psychology. She began her PhD in 2020, exploring the concept of the ideal worker within the professionalised non-profit sector, specifically from the perspective of ethnic minority females. Prior to entering academia, she worked across several different industries, including, oil and gas, investment banking, not-for-profit, construction and property as an organizational development and learning consultant.

Dr. Libby Drury joined the Department of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck in 2017 as a Lecturer and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021. Libby is passionate about equality and diversity. Her research is rooted in the social psychology of prejudice and stereotypes. She examines how prejudice and negative attitudes towards members of minority groups affect outcomes in the workplace.

Dr. Vanessa Iwowo is Lecturer in Organizational Psychology. She is an award-winning management scholar whose research focuses on ways of enhancing leadership development in international contexts and also with respect to Africa. Her interests lie in the critical study of processes, interactions and power relationships through which knowledge is generated and disseminated, particularly in the fields of leadership development and management education. Before joining Birkbeck, Vanessa taught Leadership and Decision Sciences at LSE and previously at the Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter Business School, from where she also received her PhD in Leadership Studies. Her research in critical leadership studies is internationally recognized and her doctoral thesis on ‘Leadership Development in Africa’ was awarded the prestigious Academy of Management ‘Best Prize’ in Critical Management Studies. Since then, Vanessa's work on Leadership Development has gone on to win several awards such as the notable 'Emerald Literati Award for Excellence' in 2016 as well as the Academy of Management (AoM) 'Best Critical Paper' Award for 2016.

Dr. Wendy Hein, joined the Marketing group in the Management department at Birkbeck in 2011. Her research interest focuses on gender and feminist perspectives in consumer research and marketing, and innovative research methods in this field. She is also interested in transformative research and policy interventions linked to this research. Inspired by her role as co-ordinator in the UN PRME gender equality working group, she has been engaged in research on gender equality and equity in marketing and consumer research, with a particular focus on feminisms, power and critical studies in men and masculinities. She worked as part of the FP7 TRIGGER project awarded to Birkbeck, exploring in particular gender cultures within research and science.

Helen Lawton Smith is Professor of Entrepreneurship, Department of Management, Birkbeck, University of London. She is the Director of the Centre for Innovation Management Research. She is the Founder and Research Director of the Oxfordshire Economic Observatory, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University. Her research focuses on geographies of innovation. Her current research on ‘Addressing regional inequalities in innovation opportunities for Black, Asian and minority ethnic and disabled groups’ is funded by the Regional Studies Association.

Dr. Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya is a proud immigrant and a scholar activist. She is the Assistant Dean for Equalities and Diversity at the School of Business, Economics, and Informatics (BEI) and Senior Lecturer and Programme Director of MSc Human Resource Management in the Department of Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. Uracha writes and speaks about unequal working lives and careers, with a particular focus on workers’ lived experience at the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, immigration status, and nationality. She draws on critical approaches to concepts of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’. Uracha is committed to advancing meaningful diversity and inclusion in the workplace through solidarity and collective action. She is proud to have been named “Colleague of the Year” in 2022 at Birkbeck, University of London. 

Dr Tinghua Yu is a Lecturer in Economics at Birkbeck, University of London. Prior to her appointment at Birkbeck, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the LSE School of Public Policy. She received her Ph.D.  from Columbia University. She uses formal theory and quantitative methods to study the political economy of institutions and development. Her research focuses on gender, intrinsic motivation and authoritarian politics.  

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