Speakers
Dr. Shane Austin
Prof. Helen Kwanashie
Dr. Natasha Mavengere
Panel Discussion
In an increasingly globalised world, there is an urgent need to adopt a more diverse and decolonised approach to Biosciences Education. This meeting will explore key issues around decolonisation and diversification, and what this means for the biosciences, as well as discussing practical suggestions for how teaching can be made more inclusive.
Topics will include the historical legacies of colonialism on the Biosciences, the need to adopt more diverse and inclusive examples, ableism within the curriculum, awarding gaps for disadvantaged students, and how Biology education can better incorporate international perspectives.
The meeting includes global and student perspectives, and the emotional implications of receiving a non-inclusive education. The meeting also aims to contribute to a building a network with colleagues from the UK and around the world interested in building a more diverse and inclusive bioscience education environment. This meeting therefore aligns closely with both the 'Teaching and Learning' and 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity' aims of the OED section.
Helen Ochuko Kwanashie obtained her PhD Pharmacology from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Nigeria; undertook postdoctoral training at the University of Dundee in the UK, and attained Full Professorship of Pharmacology in 2004. She had also earned two Education qualifications from ABU, namely: Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) and Higher Diploma in Guidance and Counselling Education (HDGCE). A career academic, Kwanashie has been teaching and researching in the university setting for four decades (from 1982 and mostly at ABU); but is now at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) since 2021. Her expertise had been in Perinatal Biochemical Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacology Education; and more recently, in Open and Distance eLearning (ODeL). Kwanashie is a Past-President/Member of the West African Society for Pharmacology (WASP), Member of the Convention of Biomedical Research Ghana (CoBREG), Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society (BPS) and a Councilor on the 2018-2022 Executive Committee of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR).
In the last three years, Kwanashie has switched her research model from mammalian systems (principally mice and rats), to the highly versatile fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster; for which purpose, she established Kwanash Droso Lab (KDL). Her current research, teaching and advocacy interests deal with interphasing Drosophila and ODL for bioscience research/education, gender concerns within ODL institutions, as well as mitigating distance-learning student attrition via online counselling. In today’s panel discussion, she hopes to share some of her experiences as a bioscience professor as well as more generic perspectives on bioscience education among Africans and others, to whom she’s professionally connected.
Dr. Natasha R Mavengere received her Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology with an emphasis on microbial genetics from the University of the Western Cape in South Africaa the M.Sc degree in Microbial biotechnology and ecology from the same university. Her research interests lie in the broad areas of microbial biotechnology, natural product discovery from microorganisms and microbial genetics.
Dr. Maryam Rafiqi holds a PhD title in molecular plant pathology from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. She has been trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, as a junior group leader at Giessen University in Germany, and as a lecturer in the Jodrell Laboratory at RBG Kew, London. Recently, She held the position of associate professor of plant pathology at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco from 2019 to the end of 2022. Maryam established a molecular plant pathology lab in Morocco and mentored scientists from 6 African countries. In September 2022, Maryam volunteered to organise a coffee morning addressing the challenges facing women in science in Marrakech (Morocco), as part of the Global Women in Crop Science.
Maryam is a single mum to a 7-year-old, She is a member of several international boards. Maryam received awards from ANU’s Network for Early Career Academics at ANU (NECTAR) in 2012 and from the European Research Council's program PRIMA in 2022.