EVIDENCE: Giving evidence to Higher Education Equal Opportunities Network (HEEON) on how the disruptions may be affecting neurodiverse people
MEETINGS: Helping out with tutorials at the workplace, and initiating regular meetings with colleagues who lead on postgraduate programmes to strategise resilient ways forward that are more sustainable (environmentally and in terms of mental health) for students (including international, disabled) and staff. Discourses and stories arising from George Floyd’s death have been a wake-up call. A key focus is on equality, diversity and inclusion, starting with race and the decolonisation of the curriculum. The emphasis is on creating a pathway that complements and supports existing ones but also cuts across divisions/silos, to emphasis collaboration across disciplines/hierarchy, embedding good/better practice, and making use of fellow colleagues as working group/panel of experts and critical friends to help solve problems, think aloud etc.
CRYING: Comforting colleagues who are troubled, including by offering to cry together through Skype.
RUNNING: Running again (or rather shuffling my body left/right/forwards/backwards limped-ly but hey, no one is watching), and during these runs shuffling, checking if the local arts premises are OK. I have also contacted the local cat cafe and volunteered to clean the litter (and be in the presence of their great majesties) but the cafe have turned down my offer (have they their own armies of crazy cat ladies?). During the shuffling, I also visit friends who are key workers and give them face masks I have been given, get snacks for and say hello to local homeless friends, and otherwise pretend to be playing a game with the city as my playground and making sharp turns whenever I run into another person. Remember, always 2 metres apart.
UN: I did not respond to UN call for creatives to help stop COVID-19 (kindness contagion strand) as it refuses to guarantee crediting (and will not pay honoraria). That is not kind, and not good practice, while artists and creatives are meant to be kind and donate time and effort.