What is CEDIA?

The Centre for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts is an exciting new initiative that seeks to engage with, promote and challenge issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in the Arts.

The Centre will act as a locus across the University and City region in collaboration with our cultural partners to offer a critical and practical space for thinking and doing equality, diversity and inclusion in the Arts.  The Centre will host a range of talks, public lectures, and workshops through conventional and unconventional formats.  

The Centre will work across three main areas of activity through consultation with students, staff and partnerships: 

1. Academic Learning and Teaching: Can we ‘unlearn’ our existing pedagogic approaches to create more diverse, de-colonised and inclusive curricula?

• This will include examining diversity in the curriculum by embedding issues of representation, decolonisation and intersectionality on all programmes. The objectives of this will be to improve the diversity of staff teaching, to offer more decolonised content and to broaden our understanding of inclusive and diverse curriculum as a learning organisation.
• Working with our students as ‘consultants on the curriculum’ from diverse groups (e.g. BAME, Class, Gender, LGBTQ+ and Disability). 
• To offer an inclusive pedagogy that also focuses on student wellbeing and mental health.
• To identify innovative and effective approaches to close engagement, participation and attainment gaps.

2. Research: Through our scholarship and practice how can we create relevant and collaborative knowledge exchanges around equality, diversity and inclusion with approaches to research that support this? 

• We will draw on existing and new excellent practices from our Interdisciplinary Research Clusters across the Arts & Design. These inform teaching and curriculum development for representation and inclusive storytelling: For e.g. across Acting and Performance, Film, Fine Art, Music, Media and Journalism.
• Develop Knowledge Exchange Partnerships, Continuing Professional Development/CPD, and consultancy in collaboration with our arts and industry partners. This will include CPD training for other HEIs academic communities, arts organisations and creative industries.

3. Partnership and Cultural Life in Birmingham and Beyond: How can the University contribute to diverse 21st-century civic life in the city region?

• We will work closely on new and dynamic projects with our Alumni, Honorary Doctorates, arts organisations, creative industries and communities across the City.
• Our outputs will include public exhibitions, performances, and the production of new artistic collaborations etc. with an annual programme of events and case studies featured on the Centre’s website.
• We will aim to create new local and global partnerships that seek to promote excellence for equality, diversity and inclusion in the Arts.

Lenny Henry Centre panel discussion and Q &A session 

As part of the CEDIA launch, Professor Diane Kemp, Marcus Ryder and Emma Butt discussed the research currently going on in the Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. The 90 minute discussion also included a question and answer session with the audience. You can view the video here.