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Enabling equitable cultures: sexuality

This page contains a collection of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) resources with relevance to sexuality. These resources were collated as part of the project, Enabling equitable cultures of knowledge and practice in physical geography and environmental science, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

This page is dynamic; if you know of other relevant resources or wish to submit your own case study, we’d like to hear from you at rhed@rgs.org

The Society does not accept responsibility for the content of the external sites. Inclusion on this list does not equate to an endorsement of any content or organisation. Please contact the external site for questions regarding individual resources.

Reports, guidance and toolkits

APPG Diversity and Inclusion in STEM, Inquiry in Equity in STEM Education: Final Report

British Science Association (UK)

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) in STEM aims to promote the inclusion and progression of people from diverse backgrounds in STEM, and to encourage government, parliamentarians, academics, businesses and other stakeholders to work towards a STEM sector that is representative of the population.

ASSET 2016: experiences of gender equality in STEMM academia and their intersections with ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and age

Equality Change Unit (UK)

ASSET 2016 provides new insight as it includes an in-depth examination of how gender differences vary across individual academic disciplines and subpopulations (eg for respondents with or without caring responsibilities). This approach and the addition of qualitative analyses allows ASSET 2016 to paint a more detailed picture of the current state of gender equality in STEMM academia.

Identity, behaviour and wellbeing

ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (UK)

This project aims to (i) understand how individual characteristics and experiences (particularly adversities and contextual factors) are associated with identity across different domains, (ii) examine patterns of identity acculturation in a multicultural society across ethnic minorities and majority, (iii) estimate the relationship between identity across different domains and mental health and wellbeing, and (iv) estimate the role of identity on labour market activities and educational attainment.

Exploring the Workplace for LGBT+ Physical Scientists

Institute of Physics, Royal Astronomical Society, and Royal Society of Chemistry (UK)

A comprehensive survey to gather data from across the community – giving new insights into the current workplace environment for LGBT+ physical scientists.

Education Beyond the Straight and Narrow

National Union of Students (UK)

This research, the first of its kind, explores the experience of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) students in higher education, focusing specifically on their everyday life on campus, their access to different services and factors that influence success and course completion.

Pride and Prejudice in Education

National Union of Students (2016)

An exploration of experiences and perceptions of sexual orientation and gender identity among post school education learners and staf.

Advancing equity, diversity and inclusivity in the environmental sciences. Collaborative Inclusivity Roundtable Series: Summary report

NERC (UK)

The aim of the Collaborative Inclusivity roundtable series was to create a shared space to value lived experience. It aims to share best practice, and identify actions to overcome barriers.

Sexuality and fieldwork

Demery, A.J.C., Pipkin, M.A. (2021) Safe fieldwork strategies for at-risk individuals, their supervisors and institutions. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 5–9. Access the article.
Greene, S.E. et al. (2021) Safety and Belonging in the Field: A Checklist for Educators, EarthArXiv. Access the article.
Kloß ST. (2017) Sexual(ized) harassment and ethnographic fieldwork: A silenced aspect of social research, Ethnography, 18(3):396-414. Access the article.
Mott, C. and Roberts, S. (2014) Not everyone has (the) balls: urban exploration and the persistence of masculinist geography. Antipode, 46, pp. 229-245.
Nelson, J., Mattheis, A., and Yoder, J. B. (2022) Nondisclosure of queer identities is associated with reduced scholarly publication rates. PloS one, 17(3), e0263728.
Nelson, R.G., Rutherford, J.N., Hinde, K. and Clancy, K.B.H. (2017) Signaling Safety: Characterizing Fieldwork Experiences and Their Implications for Career Trajectories, American Anthropologist, 119, pp. 710-722. Access the article.

Anti-homophobic and queer pedagogies

Browne, K. (2020). Isn’t this just about lesbians? Teaching hegemonic geographies of sexualities and genders here and now. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 44(2), 203-216.
DasGupta, D., Rosenberg, R., Catungal, J. P., & Gieseking, J. J. (2021). Pedagogies of Queer and Trans Repair: Letters from Queer Geographic Classrooms. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 20(5). Access the article.
Eaves, L. E. (2020). Interanimating Black sexualities and the geography classroom. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 44(2), 217-229.
England, K. (1999). Sexing geography, teaching sexualities [1]. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(1), 94-101.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. (1999). Queer (y) ing Capitalism in and out of the Classroom [1]. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(1), 80-85.
Knopp, L. (1999). JGHE Symposium: Teaching Sexualities in Geography [1] Queer Theory, Queer Pedagogy: new spaces and new challenges in teaching geography. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(1), 77-79.
Nast, H. J. (1999). 'Sex','Race'and Multiculturalism: Critical consumption and the politics of course evaluations. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 23(1), 102-115.
Skelton, T. (2020). Teaching sexuality across time, space and political contexts. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 44(2), 188-202
Zebracki, M., & Hall, J. J. (2020). Teaching geographies of sexualities: 20 years on. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 44(2), 179-187