About Difficult Conversations
Difficult Conversations is a podcast series produced for I-REACCH, the University of Leicester’s programme to build a more inclusive research environment. Each episode brings together researchers and colleagues to examine a subject the sector often finds uncomfortable, and to consider what changing it would actually require.
The series was created on a straightforward premise: the barriers to progression and belonging in research careers are widely experienced but rarely discussed openly. Formal policy documents describe what an institution intends. Conversations describe what people encounter. This podcast is an attempt to record the second, and to make it available to anyone working in or entering a research career.
Episodes are hosted by Dr Kike Ladipo and Dr Gez Williams, and are produced by Chaos Created.
What the series covers
Each episode is built around a single theme, explored with a guest whose research or professional experience speaks directly to it. Topics across the series include:
- Tackling harassment in research
- Rebuilding research cultures
- Positionality and research across different cultural contexts
- Publish or perish, and the pressures of academic publishing
- Equity, diversity and inclusion in practice
- Allyship, and what it asks of colleagues
Conversations are recorded in full and edited lightly. The intention is not to arrive at tidy conclusions, but to give difficult subjects the time and candour they are usually denied.
Who it is for
The series is intended for postgraduate researchers, early career research staff, professional services colleagues, research leaders, and anyone with an interest in how research environments are shaped. Discussion is grounded in the University of Leicester’s experience, though the challenges examined are common across the sector, and the series is offered as a resource to colleagues at other institutions.
About I-REACCH
I-REACCH, Inclusive Research Environment Achieved through Culture Change, is a Wellcome Trust funded project at the University of Leicester. It responds to a challenge identified through institution-wide consultation: the decline in diversity from postgraduate researcher to professor and beyond.
The project works across five interconnected workstreams, combining data collection and analysis with targeted career interventions and rigorous evaluation:
- Rethinking equitable recruitment practices
- Inclusive career progression
- Inspiring research culture
- Leading with empathy
- Evaluation and dissemination
Each workstream is co-designed with people who have lived experience of the barriers it addresses. The aim is an enriched and resilient research community that supports all research-related staff to realise their potential, and to produce scalable, reproducible outcomes that other institutions can adopt.
You can read more about the project and its workstreams at the I-REACCH project website.