The aim of the Many Faces project was to showcase the diversity of talent within and across our Science and Engineering disciplines at Manchester Metropolitan University. The project generated a highly diverse and visual set of role models for students, with the aim of raising our students’ aspirations, confidence and sense of belonging in the Faculty. In this Advance HE Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2022 Presentation, we showcased the optimism, inspiration and ambition of our Manchester Metropolitan Science and Engineering students, staff and alumni by sharing the posters, social media posts and videos that comprise the “Many Faces” campaign. We also shared how to replicate such a campaign and also provide ideas as to how to maximise its impact (for example embedding it in personal tutoring discussions, graduate skills and employability sessions and at open days)
To hear more about the project watch this short video I made here,
The Many Faces of Science and Engineering is a highly visual campaign whose aim was to bring centre stage the talents, the experiences and the ambitions of often underrepresented groups of students including disabled, Black Asian and Minority Ethnic, and LGBTQ students. Flowing through the project are the voices and lived experiences of often marginalised groups in society. Indeed, the campaign was developed and led by one of our own recent alumni and all the materials were co-created by the “Faces” themselves. The project has directly sought to showcase role models for students, to address the 2020 call made by Professor Paul Miller for students to be able to say “I see you, I hear you, I belong”
Whilst there have been other campaigns that have showcased diversity in STEM disciplines ( for example the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 175 Faces of Chemistry in 2016), our campaign was innovative in that the “Faces” were overwhelmingly our own students, our own members of staff and our own alumni, telling their own stories, sharing their own ambitions and offering invaluable advice for the next generation of Man Met students. In doing the project, we are also now able to maximise its ongoing impact and the changes it has effected by using the posters and profiles of the “Faces” to underpin Personal Tutoring and Employability activities across the Faculty.
For a flavour of the Many Faces Campaign and to inspire you please have a look our Many Faces website https://www.mmu.ac.uk/science-engineering/many-faces, or watch these short student videos
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNOG4oAkGsA •https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK2zTYbjeN8 •https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDHOCuAHtKk