Faces of Reading

Like any job the chaplaincy has its challenges. Our main challenge is financial as we would like to provide more for our students. Our highlights are Welcome Week and Open Days, especially being able to meet with parents of prospective students and to reassure them that the chaplaincy is there for their children. I find most parents particularly the international students find this reassuring as not all Universities have this provision. They are pleased to know that their children and wards are provided for in times of loneliness and moments of crisis.

My background is strategic financial management, I am a graduate of Kingston University and have several business qualifications, as well as football – I am an ardent supporter of Manchester United. Outside of work my hobbies are listening to gospel, jazz and country music, disc jockeying & presenting my own radio show. 

Since joining the chaplaincy I have felt very supported and protected as I work with very supportive and pleasant colleagues. I would recommend this University as an excellent place of study and a great place to work.

The thing I enjoy most about Reading is the School I work in, both the staff and the students. Everyone is supportive and friendly and will stop to have a chat – and that includes the Head of School. We do our work but we also do have time to catch-up as well. Because I’m the Programmes Director, I also get involved with the Reading University Construction Society (RUCS), as well as the University's Ghana Student Society.

I’ve been given the opportunity to grow in what I do, and I think Reading gives everyone that opportunity – you just have to be yourself, and take it. Regardless of where you come from, grasp the opportunity and go with it.

I have held a variety of roles in ISLI to date, including Assistant Programme Director for the Pre-sessional English (PSE) programme, and Academic Language and Literacy Liaison (post-graduate) for the Henley Business School. I have also been involved in the digitisation of teaching materials and the maintenance of online learning environments for both the Foundation programme (home students), the Pre-sessional English programme, and the Academic English programme. I am actively involved in the EEDI (Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) committee, as well as the Technology Enhanced Learning community of practice. I also enjoy reviewing written submissions as part of the InForm journal editorial board here at the University.

Over the years, the University has given me the space and support to grow as a professional by offering me a wide variety of roles according to my particular skills and interests. I have mostly been working on full-time contracts at the University of Reading, however I have taken part-time contracts too. This flexibility has enabled me to focus on completing my own research for my MA dissertation, while still working and remaining part of ISLI. I appreciated the flexibility with my hours and workload during that busy time.

I am currently studying part-time for my Doctorate in Education (EdD) here at the University of Reading, while working full-time at ISLI. It is a great comfort to me to feel secure in the knowledge that ISLI will support me wholeheartedly in this endeavour.

In February 2020, I became co-Chair of the LGBT+ staff network. I identify as Gay and Jewish. I feel very fortunate to work in a welcoming space where my sexual orientation is something I can celebrate as opposed to something which is just tolerated: where I can be ‘out and proud’. The rainbow flag flies high on IDAHOBIT, and the university quite rightly celebrates each year the contribution of its then Chancellor, Lord Wolfenden, to the acceptance of gay people through his authorship of the famous Wolfenden Report. 

Shortly before the COVID-19 lockdown, I was fortunate to marry my husband (and now law school colleague), Professor David Bilchitz, in a progressive Jewish egalitarian Vegan gay wedding in South Africa. David and I wrote about our experiences in the Jewish Report.

I am passionate about advancing LGBT+ rights in the UK and globally, especially in respect of ensuring asylum-seekers' access to protection for persecution and in working with Parliamentarians, civil society organisations, practitioners, and recognised refugees.   

When it comes to my Jewish identity, given its distressing prevalence, I feel blessed to have never experienced antisemitism on campus. Unlike other institutions, Reading does not hold lectures, seminars, or examinations on the Jewish Sabbath, and when I flagged up the challenge posed for prospective Jewish students with holding open and visit days only on Saturdays, additional dates were added. Hence, it strikes me that the question at – and for Reading – is not about willingness to accommodate, but about awareness and visibility: the public calendar which the University follows is centred around Christian holidays (notably Christmas and Easter) whereas festivals of minority faiths like Divali, Eid, or Yom Kippur are not publicly recognised. I know that this can and will change.