LGBTQ+
Being in a welcoming environment where you can be yourself leads to: happier more engaged staff or students, greater productivity, more connectivity with work and better interactions with peers, colleagues, customers and clients.
As mathematicians we love our statistics, but Stonewall’s Trans Key Stats and LGBT in Britain – Health reports are truly shocking. If you ever hear someone question why LGBTQ+, gender reassignment or sexual orientation matters at work or whilst studying, then directing them to these figures often changes their mind. Ultimately, the mathematics community is stronger if our members can achieve their full potentials because they can be themselves.
The IMA at LGBTQ+STEMinar
The IMA have been proud supporters and sponsors of the yearly LGBTQ+ STEMinar, since 2020.
We had a wonderful time at the 5th LGBTQ+STEMinar (#LGBTSteminar20), hosted in Birmingham on the 10th January 2020. We were proud to sponsor the event at Silver level and wish to thank the organisers at Birmingham and LGBTQ+STEM for a great day.
We met a wide variety of STEM students and professionals. Conversations highlighted the immense potential for future interdisciplinary collaborations and many of the talks had connections to mathematics.
Marina Logares, from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, gave a fascinating and very funny keynote speech about her work in Algebraic Geometry and LGBTQ+ Rights, you can see an interview with Marina below. She talked about the importance of visible role-models within STEM and particularly mathematics; she compared this with the arts, biology and social sciences where more of the community are comfortable being “out” and suggested there seems to be an extra layer of invisibility within the often more introverted mathematics community.
Marina also described challenges, such as: few support networks exist for staff, and attending conferences in countries with legal or cultural differences. Marina made an excellent point about inclusivity: she described when she gets asked very personal questions, such as “do you have a family/girlfriend”. Inclusivity can be as simple as thinking about the assumptions your question makes and rethinking whether that is appropriate to ask or whether rephrasing the question would be better. She ended her keynote by encouraging “Visibility, diversity and love”.
Other presenters talked about the difficulties of “love on the move”, where your next research position may be in a country with different laws.
The IMA attended the workshop on LGBTQ+ networks, given by Avery Cunningham and Claire Davies. We learnt that the Pink List often includes only one or two STEM professionals. Both oSTEM and PRISM networks highlighted the importance of working with other diversity organisations as well. PRISM forms an LGBT hub for local industry as well as academia and it is great to see some of our Corporate Affiliates like EDF Energy on the list.
An Interview with Professor Marina Logares, FIMA
After we enjoyed hearing Marina Logares keynote at the LGBTQ+STEMinar we asked Marina for a longer interview, we were delighted when she accepted and are thrilled to be able to bring this to you, enjoy!
Why were you most inspired by algebraic geometry?
The link between algebra and geometry dates back to the ancient Greeks, or even earlier. For instance, the three most important problems of ancient Mathematics: the cube duplication, the trisection of an angle, and the squaring of the circle, have their answers in the deep relationship between geometry and algebra.
I like the beauty of geometry and the way it approximates the physical world. Historically, mathematics has provided a language for the other sciences and in particular geometry has had a profound interaction with the advances in physics. As an example, the discovery of non-Euclidean geometries provided the mathematical basis to Einstein’s relativity theory. Furthermore, in the 20th century the foundations of algebraic geometry fostered the interaction between physics and geometry, in particular in areas such as String Theory and Mirror Symmetry.
I’m therefore interested in algebraic geometry, the tools that it provides to physics, and the interactions between geometry and physics.
What have been the highlights of your career so far?
Some of the best moments of my career are directly linked to the UK. As a student I did a three month visit to Oxford, funded by a European grant. At that time, there was no Wikipedia or Internet forums such as Maths Exchange etc. I was very lucky to be taught by the best, the world experts in my area, who at the same time were extremely kind people who generously and patiently answered all my questions. I must add that this kindness is a denominator for all the great places I have had the opportunity to visit, for instance I remember a conference at IAS (Princeton, US) where I could enjoy seniors just explaining the details of a lecture to postdocs and students in such a natural way as during lunch.
Years later, I returned to Oxford funded by a Marie Curie IF. Once again this changed my life and career. With respect to my professional career, I could benefit again from the opportunity to learn from the best, to get advice from the best. But moreover, I got to interact with amazing people, in an inclusive and extremely kind workplace. What I saw there lead me to be more and more interested in the EDI policies implemented here in the UK. I believe that one can get the best from people if and only if the work environment is inclusive and respectful. But to get such a working environment it is necessary to work for it, and never take it for granted.
After Oxford, I became a Lecturer at Plymouth University and there I was a member of the LGBT Staff Forum. Again I got to meet incredible people. The LGBT staff forum there does wonderful work and I learnt a lot from their founders.
At the conference you talked about raising the profile of female LGBT mathematicians, and their invisibility, can you say some more?
The invisibility of women in science is something that is very well documented these days. There are many studies addressing the many issues female academics go through in their careers. That covers from discrimination suffered as students to full professor level, as well as all discrimination suffered from students to coworkers, etc.
Moreover, being LGBT in academia is still a taboo in many Universities when considering a Worldwide perspective. Some societies are still not quite adapted to such expression of freedom in life, many cultures and religions reject that possibility the same way things such as divorce are judged and rejected.
Let me say that the conclusion is then easy to reach. There is an obvious double discrimination by being female and LGBT. The only question here (as in many other double discriminations) is whether this double discrimination is an addition of discriminations or multiplication of discriminations.
In order to make progress and reduce such discriminations, the logical thing is to look for allies but, in my opinion, this can be difficult because the LBT female community is a bit more isolated. Many academics wish to find life partners who also work in academia, making it feel a small and enclosed world in which there are fewer females. I would say, and it is only my opinion, that there can still be some wariness and concern from male heterosexuals that they may need to compete with lesbians, whilst heterosexual women can be concerned about unwanted advances from lesbians. Sometimes, I have found lesbians withdraw from the social aspects of the community to avoid any issues, and thereby sadly become even more invisible.
What challenges have you faced being an LGBT academic?
Being LGBT challenges LGBT people’s lives in many ways that are undetected by others.
A conference dinner can be a source of stress for a couple if they are a same sex couple. A field trip can be a life risk when it comes to a country where LGBT people are condemned and not only because of the specific laws of the country. In this last matter many would think: “ok! Just do not say openly that you are LGBT” but, what if the information is leaked somehow? Overheard, found out on the internet, deduced… A particular problem for lesbian women is that “corrective rape” is performed in many countries.
When it comes to analyse the performance of a lecturer in order to get a promotion, are his/her chances of promotion affected by his/her denial to go on field trips that may endanger their life?
Also when analysing performance, is possible homophobia taken into account in the student feedback/comments?
When it comes to hiring a new academic, how do you solve visa problems where LGBT marriage is not legal in the original country the academic comes from?
Who have you been inspired by?
Mathematically and personally I have been inspired by many mathematicians I got to learn from and in some cases even to work with. Their great achievements inspire, as does that they are also extraordinary human beings. Some of them are women and men that have overcome challenges in their own ways. All of them are people that essentially respect people and give the best of themselves to others (as professors as well as researchers).
I believe that the academic career is essentially a dedication to the advance of knowledge as a community, whilst enjoying doing it. Hence, it needs the ingredient of generosity in order to transmit that knowledge and let it grow. I’ve been lucky to meet people that continuously remind me of this, those are my inspiration.
What would you say to inspire others?
Just encourage everybody to “be true to yourself”. That’s the most important thing. The reason simply being because one has to live with oneself forever but the people around may not always be the same people. It’s only logical! 🙂
Marina has kindly provided these additional links, they are in Spanish, but can be translated using a web service translator:
Two articles at the national Spanish newspaper “El País”:
El País, an article by me: https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/06/06/ciencia/1465201419_158730.html
El País, an interview: https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/05/28/ciencia/1559071397_626794.html
As well as an interview by Agencia Sinc (news agency Founded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology): https://www.agenciasinc.es/Entrevistas/La-ciencia-inclusiva-no-se-hace-sola-hay-que-trabajarsela
Messages from our mathematicians
Ben Calverley (@bcalvr)
My journey through mathematics has been a varied one which has taken me via undergraduate maths studies, teaching high school maths in New Zealand, a master’s in theoretical physics, more teaching – this time A-levels in London – and finally to the world of biological maths, becoming a ‘mathemologist’ at the University of Manchester. In my PhD at Manchester I work on the links between collagen – our body’s most abundant protein – and our 24 hour circadian rhythm (see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-019-0441-z for our most recent paper). I have been incredibly lucky in my PhD to be a part of a cohort of students with strong LGBTQ+ representation, able to support each other and foster a welcoming environment.
One of the absolute highlights of my mathematical life so far came very recently. In January this year I attended the LGBTQ+ STEMinar in Birmingham. This annual event brings together LGBTQ+ people from across Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths to discuss and present their research, as well as celebrate and promote diversity across STEM areas. Never have I been to a seminar or conference with a better atmosphere, a more open and welcoming tone, or range of ideas. I can’t wait for next year!
Maths has always been to me the fundamental way of understanding anything we might want to study. It is possibly the most creative subject there is, and the chance to experience its surprises, frustrations, and eureka moments should be open to as many and as diverse a range of people as possible.
Messages from our Corporate Affiliates
AWE
AWE’s Pride network runs a “drop in” breakfast every fortnight and have a network of allies. During the network’s first year, we ran a successful reverse mentoring buddy scheme where Directors and Pride members could meet in a more relaxed atmosphere to build understanding.
We are pleased to be providing a supportive environment for staff who are transitioning and see this as building on the excellent foundations of our past employee Angela Clayton MBE, campaigner for transgender rights.
We attended Reading Pride for the first-time last year, where we had a good deal of fun with colourful experiments. AWE is also a supporter of the LGBTQ+ Steminar which enables an inclusive environment for STEM students of all identities to present their work as their authentic selves.