On the 26th of June 2020, Saloni hosted a university-wide session on Racism in Science and Academia. Her guest was Angela Saini, award-winning British science journalist and author of recent book “Superior: The Return of Race Science”, as well as “Inferior: How science”. Angela spoke about a range of issues, including the uncomfortable history of psychology/ genetics, the murky corners in which racist science still lurks, and how collective ignorance of these issues might lead us to think there isn’t a problem. To quote Angela (not an exact quote) – “If you look around you, and you find you are in a mostly or all white department – even if the problem didn’t start with you, it certainly ended up here”.
In this vein, we are pleased that the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway is putting in place stronger policies to attract black students. In addition, the department has set up an Equalities Group to ensure that a wide consideration of equality and diversity is embedded into integral departmental functions. Saloni is delighted to be serving on this committee. We sincerely hope that in a few years, we can actually improve on the representation of under-represented minorities in the department, and change our wider culture.