KAREN PATEL
Associate Professor in Media
The Inequalities and Diversity in the Arts and Creative Industries conference by CEDIA, the Centre for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts, took place on Thursday 16th January 2025 in the Parkside building at BCU. This was the first ever academic conference to be organised by CEDIA, which in recent months has transitioned from a centre to a research cluster in the faculty of Arts, Design and Media. This conference was an important event to mark the beginning of CEDIA as a research cluster, establishing CEDIA within research and conversations pertaining to equality, diversity and inclusion in the cultural sector.
CEDIA has held two events previously which were both focused on the cultural sector itself and included speakers from cultural organisations and practitioners. Whilst this was CEDIA’s first academic conference, we were really pleased to see that much of the research presented was plugged into the sector and foregrounded the voices and contributions of creative and cultural workers. In addition, we had presentations from practitioners working in EDI in the arts, as well as two film screenings, so there was a great variety to the conference too.
The high quality of submissions to the conference and the breadth of disciplines meant that we had three parallel sessions, with over 40 presentations in one day, streamed online as well as in-person to ensure the conference was as accessible as possible. Topics included media representation, the conditions of creative work, podcasting, EDI initiatives in industry, journalism, filmmaking, dance research, creative education and reality TV. We then had a keynote speech from author Subhadra Das, who discussed her fantastic book (Un)civilised: Ten Lies Which Made the West. Subhadra’s keynote underpinned why we were all gathered at the conference, and highlighted how colonial legacies continue to impact higher education institutions.
The topic of inequalities in the creative and cultural industries is a significant area of research that continues to grow, and this was the first conference in many years to bring together researchers working in this area, from all around the world. We had speakers from as far afield as the USA, Canada, Turkey and The Philippines. It was such a pleasure to see so many amazing presentations, to join in the discussions and see people making connections. A huge thanks to colleagues in the College of English and Media who helped on the day – Annette Naudin, Hazel Collie, Gemma Commane, Poppy Wilde, Rajinder Dudrah, Panayiota Tsatsou, Olufunmilayo Jinadu, Helen Hopkins, and PGRs Sofia Brizio and Harri Charles who helped to ensure the hybrid aspects of the conference ran smoothly. This was a collective effort, and everyone involved, from the BCU professional services teams to ADM Faculty colleagues, to attendees and presenters, all made the conference such a success. It was a great way to kick off CEDIA’s next phase as a research cluster.
