Culture Clubs are intended to provide regular discussions of issues that affect the culture of your department. We started the first Culture Club in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews in the hope that it would provide an opportunity to discuss big ideas of relevance to equality and diversity, ethics and governance.
All members of your department. In a university, this would be members of staff and students. Our initial focus was on staff and students in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, but this has expanded such that everyone from the University of St Andrews is now welcome to attend.
Participants look at some resources, turn up to the meeting, and contribute by listening or speaking.
BEFORE: Participants look through the resources circulated for the week’s meeting, and investigate whatever feels interesting. The materials link to a range of media (podcasts, videos, articles) in short and longer formats.
DURING: The topic should be introduced, and the week’s materials summarised. After that, participants volunteer their thoughts, as much or as little as they want. Whatever happens, all participants should feel that their presence, views and curiosity are welcome.
Sometimes the ideas we speak about benefit from being grounded in our own experiences. Sometimes we voice thoughts that might not be fully thought through. All of this is encouraged. To aid people disclosing as little or as much as they think is relevant to the conversation, all participants should maintain confidentiality outside Culture Club meetings.