Common Causes: How Students, Staff and Alumni Uniting Around Shared Goals, Can Build Community and Open Avenues for Research and Enhance Student Experience

Somerville, Daniel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8219-6884 (2017) Common Causes: How Students, Staff and Alumni Uniting Around Shared Goals, Can Build Community and Open Avenues for Research and Enhance Student Experience. In: Beyond Boundaries University of Worcester Annual Learning, Teaching & Student Experience Conference, 15th - 16th June 2017, University of Worcester. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This paper will explore how common causes and shared goals can enable staff, students and alumni to work together in creative ways, working beyond the boundaries of these categories. The paper will take as a case study the work undertaken by Dr Daniel Somerville in relation to Worcestershire Pride.
Worcestershire Pride is a volunteer run community group that seeks to provide cultural and community building events for LGBT+ people in Worcestershire. Activities are planned throughout the year and will culminate in a one day celebration on 23rd September 2017, accompanied by a small arts festival in Worcester. The organising committee is comprised of local activists, business owners and staff, students and alumni of the university.
This cooperation around a common cause and shared goal means that staff and current and former students are able to communicate within a structure other than that provided by the university. Further links to LGBT+ students through the SU and LGBT+ society, and LGBT+ staff, are being cultivated which means that the university can further demonstrate its commitment to diversity and inclusivity.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalization of homosexuality in the UK, and 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, regarded as the beginning of the global LGBT+ movement, which Pride celebrates. These milestones in the LGBT+ movement provide topical subjects for researchers. With its connections to local LGBT+ stakeholders and national networks (UKPON) Worcestershire Pride, in which the university is becoming increasingly invested, provides an avenue for networking and data gathering for potential research projects.

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