Last week, as part of Disability Recognition Month I was interviewed by one of the Senior Careers Advisers, Christian Jameson-Warren about my career journey. One aim of this ‘In Conversation with....’ session for our students was for me to talk openly about how I have navigated my disabilities alongside my career in academia. In the spirit of creating a permissive culture at the university we had a very candid and rich conversation.
One of the aspects we discussed was the assumptions that people have made about me and my disabilities during my career regarding what I can and cannot do. Whilst my sacral nerve damage might limit my ability to walk upstairs or I need to prepare a little more ahead of public speaking events to avoid the aphasia I experience because of fibromyalgia, overall, I have found that my disability has led me to hone a lot of the skills needed for my leadership role.
I am very good at prioritising tasks and elucidating key points as I know I’m prone to pain related fatigue, I am an empathetic and patient listener as I have lived experience of discrimination and I am a contained and logical leader when a crisis occurs as I am used to compartmentalising my chronic pain to function on a daily basis. Having the opportunity to have this open conversation publicly was as beneficial to me as I hope it was to those listening. It gave me time and space to reflect and to understand a little more about the kind of leader I am at the university. It also hopefully reassured our students with disabilities that they should not feel limited when setting their career ambitions and they should feel empowered to be open and challenge any assumptions they feel are being made about their talents.
Last week I attended the university’s Festival of Lessons and Carols at St Mary’s Church in the Lace Market organised by our University Chaplaincy team. This was a wonderful whole community celebration and an opportunity to collectively enjoy festive songs. During my time at the church, I quietly contemplated all that had happened in my role over the past year and the progress we have made in making the university a more inclusive place to be.
It occurred to me that throughout all the many conversations I’ve had with staff and students those that have been the most engaging and productive have been when we have listened to each other's thoughts and opinions with tolerance and compassion and received the information with an open mind. I acknowledge that having these kinds of conversations is not always easy especially when we hold an opinion very strongly, when our sense of identity is tied to our viewpoint or we are emotionally invested.
However, what I strongly believe is that it is in those moments when we feel most impassioned that we must try our hardest to pause and listen to why something is being said to us as well as what is being shared. Only by having open conversations in which we demonstrate tolerance, listen and support each other will we truly make our community an inclusive place of work and study in which we all feel we belong.
To me, a philosophy of tolerance and compassion for others is one that truly captures the spirit of Christmas, irrelevant of whether you are of any faith or none. I know Christmas has come early for those of us who have been involved in the gender equality work, with the university having received the first institutional Gold Athena Swan award in the country.
However, when I am at home celebrating the festivities in the forthcoming holidays, I pledge to adopt the same tolerant and compassionate approach to the opening of well-intended but completely inexplicable Christmas gifts bestowed upon me. I will pause and choose my words carefully before I extend my thanks for a well-intended but completely perplexing present that the giver clearly thought I would like or need. I hope you can do the same and enjoy a peaceful and restful vacation time wherever you are and whoever you spend it with.
Professor Katherine Linehan
How to say my name
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and People
12 December 2023