The following is posted on behalf of an anonymous member of the School community. Considering it affects all our colleagues with ovaries (and their families too), I wanted to share a few pointers about peri-menopause. I was ignorant. Very ignorant. I thought menopause happens around age 60. In fact, the average is 51. But most […]
Ah! The thrill of embarking on a new adventure! Whether it’s hopping on a plane to a foreign land, or starting out as a new student or staff member at the University of Edinburgh – the excitement and nervousness are almost indistinguishable. During a recent two-week holiday to Croatia, I came to realise that there […]
Why do some people care about pronouns? What’s the fuss? Over nothing? All good questions. You can refer to me as Jonathan, him, him over there, that guy in IGS, the tall one, him and that makes sense because I look like what people think a guy should look like. I like to wear […]
Many Informatics folks, including me, enjoy occasional meals provided by the school, some in a meeting or social event, but perhaps more often as leftovers announced in the inf-people mailing list. Many of us are aware of some patterns, including catering suppliers, dietary options and serving time. Some, including me, might have been wondering why […]
Three months ago we opened for discussion a draft of our School Values, a proposed list developed by a group of about 25 people. There have been many contributions and views, often very thoughtful. It’s great to see that a large part of our School community is involved and actively helps to ground our shared […]
In the last week of May, I attended the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) 2023 conference in person. This was the first in person conference after the pandemic, and the location of the event was London, which was an easy destination to reach but also an expensive destination to stay. AAMAS […]
People like to be surrounded by things they like. Having a workspace that you like makes you happier [1], more productive [2], and even behave more ethically [3]. Nobody wants to work in a soulless environment. Therefore the School of Informatics fully supports you personalising your office. You are welcome to hang posters or decorate […]
Our university is a very large organisation. With over 15,000 staff and nearly 50,000 students, it consists of many parts. The same holds for our School. It is not always easy to find the kind of help you are looking for. Whether it’s harassment, bullying, or mental health, here are all available support options in […]
As a PhD student in the School of Informatics, I’ve been researching gender bias in language and language technologies. Time and again, I’m surprised by how simple people try to make biased language. As Abeba Birhane stresses in her interview on the podcast The Good Robot, not everything can be conceptualized as a straightforward problem […]
Our School undertakes a culture survey of all School members every two years. We don’t do this annually because we feel all this would result in is survey fatigue. We know that completing the survey takes some time! So why do it? We think the best incentive for completing the survey is evidence that the […]
