Cake Talk by Kathryn Ross

Abstract: Visibility of relatable role models is vital for engaging with and retaining people who are part of minorities in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) fields. However, academia and research institutions are often not designed with a broad range of people in mind. Consequently, those who are within minorities struggle beyond just identifying relatable role models, often feeling isolated and struggling to thrive in an environment that wasn't even designed for them to survive. In this talk, I will discuss my own personal journey with accepting being queer, learning I have ADHD, discovering the deep rooted mysogyny in academia and the realisation of the struggles I was facing to simply exist in a world not designed for me. While there are large institutional changes needed to both welcome and support a diverse range of scientists, I will outline some of the ways we can all be working to make an improvement on the ground level.