A lunchtime seminar on Aboriginal queer people at work, revising data from our randomised control trial to improve outcomes for students, public communications, and personal research.

Queer Aboriginal people at work

During my lunch break, I attended an online seminar called ‘Queer Aboriginal voices matter.’ The Aboriginal speakers talked about the racism they face in the workplace. They show how their Aboriginal communities are a big source of strength. They also shared their exclusion from LGBTQIA groups within their workplaces, which do not deal with racial justice, and don’t make Aboriginal people feel welcome.

They polled the audience, and found the majority was aged between 20 and 30 years, about 75% identified as LGBTQIA, but only 11% of the audience identifies Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. (For context, I am neither Aboriginal nor LGBTQIA.)

In response to audience questions about how to be a good ally, the speakers talked about feeling exhausted by having to constantly educate everybody about racial justice. Their advice was to read more stories from queer Aboriginal people, to uplift their voices, and to make sure we recognise when there’s discrimination in the workplace. They told us not to look the other way. They also said non-Indigenous people should offer our expertise to help queer Aboriginal people whenever they seek it.

Trial

Elsewhere today, I spent lot of time thinking through the results of our randomised control trial, and also talking with our senior data analyst. In our trial last year, we sent text messages to first year students across New South Wales. We encouraged them to seek help when they encounter problems. Currently, about 40% of this cohort drop out in their first year.

Today, I was following up on students who opted out of our messages. Are they still studying and are they doing better or worse than those who continued to receive messages from us?

Results coming soon!

Communications

I drafted our team’s newsletter.

I am also preparing to publish a short blog post to promote our colleagues’ research on simple strategies from behavioural science, to improve compliance with workplace policies.

I also prepared a second blog post to help the public evaluate misinformation online, and a third post on how to ensure more people complete online forms and surveys. Governments and other organisations have low take up with these, so my colleagues have prepared advice on how to lift engagement. (I only draft the blog posts based on their work.)

The blog posts are now with my director for approval. Hoping to publish these week.

Personal research

I had a meeting with an old friend who is working on a project and wanted some advice from critical race theory.

I also worked over email with my colleague on our web series. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes to make each of our videos on the sociology of race.