About the Protocol
The academic conference is a key part of many academics’ working lives and
careers. The goal of this Protocol is to provide support for building
inclusivity into academic conferences across all disciplines, aiming to take
into account a range of possible factors that might reduce inclusion. This
Protocol was drafted by a group of staff at Oxford Brookes University, drawn
from a range of academic disciplines and areas of student support. It considers
not only issues where UK universities are under a legal obligation to have due
regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, but also to other issues
impacting on inclusion, such as class.
Inevitably, building inclusivity in needs to be implemented in the
particular context of your conference - a colloquium where all ten participants
in a very narrow field are giving papers is very different from a multi-day,
multi-stream, international conference where only a selection of offered papers
are accepted. The Protocol is intended to be useful whatever the conference
being organised, but when using it, you should be aware that particular
suggestions may be most relevant to particular scales or audiences. The
Protocol is a way of helping you think through issues around inclusion in your
conference, not a checklist.
This Protocol is a living
document. We have sought to draw on insights, and examples of good practice,
from academic literature, learned societies, and initiatives aimed to improve
inclusion within a particular discipline, or in relation to a particular group.
Understanding of the complex issues around inclusion and the academic
conference has changed, is changing, and will continue to change. The Protocol
will be reviewed annually. If you have suggestions for changes, please contact inclusiveconference@brookes.ac.uk.
If your university, learned society, or other group, has adopted the Protocol,
please let us know at inclusiveconference@brookes.ac.uk