Professor Juliette Pattinson 

Prof. Juliette Pattinson is the Director of the Division of Arts and Humanities and a member of the University’s Executive Group at the University of Kent. Prior to this she was Deputy Director (People) of the Division of the Arts and Humanities (2021-21) and was Head of the School of History (2015-20), which was successful in achieving Athena Swan Bronze in 2017. She has three degrees in Women’s Studies and History. Specialising as a gender historian she sits on the Editorial Board of Women’s History Review, has previously served on the Steering Committee of Women’s History Network (2009-12) and co-edited its Women’s History journal. She is deeply committed to the promotion of the EDI agenda. 

Her EDI work has included conceiving, organising and hosting International Women’s Day events and organising women’s history outreach/aspiration raising/recruitment events. She has been involved in marking Black History Month, Disability History Month, Holocaust Memorial Day and LGBT History Month. As Deputy Director (People), she leads on probation, promotion, mentoring, appraisal and career development for 300 academic staff and is acutely aware of the pressing issues of equality, diversity and inclusivity. Scrutiny of curriculum content, assessment patterns, institutional policies (probation, promotion, maternity leave, appraisal etc) reveals there is much still to do. ‘Invisible, or unconscious, bias’, ‘stereotype threat’, and ‘the silencing of women’ are all identified in the Royal Historical Society’s surveys on gender equality (2015, 2018) as being rife in our profession. 

She is alert to (and concerned by!) the gendered impact of the long-term implications of the current pandemic on female academics’ research profiles. She is delighted to have this opportunity to work collaboratively together to advance gender equality in the Higher Education sector.