Postgraduate Research Culture Stories: Black and Brown in Bioethics

Posted on by University of Bristol

By Claire Parnall and Alice Ferns, Bristol Doctoral College

This is the second blog in a series looking at research culture stories within the postgraduate community.

Here you can read the first blog in this series: Postgraduate Research Culture Stories: Dr Tingfa Liu and Shahin Huseynli – The Research Culture Blog

The Bristol Doctoral College team sometimes meet postgraduate researchers (PGRs) who are struggling to connect with their broader community. This can be for a range of reasons, as every PGR journey is different, but common factors can include: the solitary nature of some research; lack of an identifiable cohort; the intensity of work demands, or the long-term impacts of Covid on collective working.

The individuals showcased in these cases have used their initiative, creativity and community spirit to develop activities or events that help PGRs connect with the broader research community at Bristol, and enhance their wellbeing, research and student experience.

We hope you are inspired by these examples to think about the ways we can all make a difference for the PGRs who work at Bristol.

[The Bristol Doctoral College team]

Black and Brown in Bioethics Conference2024: Engaging Diversity in Bioethics Theory and Practice

Black and Brown in Bioethics (BBB) is a network of over 400 members founded in 2022, by Matimba Swana (Research Associate, PhD student), Dr. Kumeri Bandara (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford) and Dr. Harleen Kaur Johal (Resident Anaesthetic Doctor and NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow), who were all doctoral students at the time. The group was created by PhD students from the shared passion for the topics of inclusion, ethics, and the aim to achieve racial equity within UK bioethics.

The network’s popularity led to the formation of the first Black and Brown in Bioethics conference hosted in 2024 (BBB24) with a focus to highlight the themes of social and racial justice that can often be overlooked in the traditional landscape of bioethics.

The theme for BBB24 was ‘Engaging Diversity in Bioethics Theory and Practice’. The platform provided a unique first opportunity for in-person discussions on shared experiences affecting ethnic minorities in the field.  The event featured a mix of keynotes, presentations, fireside chats, panel discussions, and in-person poster sessions with Academic speakers from Oxford, Birmingham, and Edinburgh Universities participating.

Dr Tanvi Rai (University of Oxford), a speaker at the event, shared her thoughts on why events like BBB24 are so important.

“I really enjoyed attending and contributing to the BBB event. I feel like the organisers created a unique and valuable space for Black and Brown researchers and academics to bring their whole, uncensored selves into important discussions about issues that deeply impact racially minoritised people in white majority nations like the UK. Such events are even more urgent in the current national and international political climate.” 

Benefitting the broader Bioethics research culture

A hybrid event allowed for online participation and the opportunity of reaching a wider Bioethics community. Around 120 delegates joined in either in-person or on-line, from Bristol other areas of the UK, as well as Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Matimba’s thoughts: 

“The creation of groups like BBB and events like BBB24 fosters the exchange of knowledge, academic interactions, and the sharing of research, experiences, advice, and solidarity, and helps people to forge new connections.”

Poster presentations from postgraduate researchers created a platform that enabled discussions and connections to be formed between peers and academics experts in the field.

Nishita Nair (King’s College London) winner of the Poster Abstract elevator pitch, explained how they have benefitted from participating in the BBB24 conference and presenting their work:

“Disseminating my work at the BBB24 conference and winning first prize reinforced my confidence in the quality and importance of my research. It provides a great vehicle to alert researchers and other relevant stakeholders to your study findings; this is turn has helped me to progress and I am currently in the process of publishing work.” 

What’s next?

2025 has been a busy year for BBB. The online attendees from the US who attended BBB24, invited the group to the winter quarter RACE Affinity meeting which took place in Feb 2025. This was in collaboration with Black & Brown in Bioethics and American Society of Bioethics and Humanities Race & Culture/Ethnicity Affinity group.

The BBB founders shared the history and work, of the group, so far in a meeting lead by Daphne Martschenko and Donald Carter the chairs of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities Race & Culture/Ethnicity Affinity group. Both groups engage in honest discourse about issues related to socially assigned race, and culture and ethnicity in the context of bioethics and determinants that drive ongoing inequities in education and health status, and the hope is that it is just the beginning of a sustained conversation and collaboration between the groups.

A new limited podcast series ‘The Power and Privilege in Academia’ was released in April 2025, which aims to achieve racial equity within the UK bioethics community. The series is supported by the Ethox Centre (University of Oxford) and funded by the University of Bristol and Research England.

BBB are also working with BMJ Medical Humanities to launch the BBB–Medical Humanities Topic Collection, a collection of papers to amplify various voices and broaden the perspectives that shape bioethics and global health discourse.

Stay tuned for contributions in the coming months Topics: Black and Brown in Bioethics. This initiative also builds on insights from the Power and Privilege in Academia podcast. In a key episode on inclusivity in publishing, Kumeri Bandara spoke with Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra and Sabrina Germain about the exclusionary ‘club’ culture that often characterises academic publishing. Their dialogue laid a powerful foundation for what would become the BBB–Medical Humanities Research Forum.

You can find out about opportunities to connect with other PGRs via the BDC Bulletin, which is sent to all PGRs at the University. Find out more about PGR clubs and networks on the BDC website.

If you have an idea for a student-led network that you would like to set up, reach out to doctoral-college@bristol.ac.uk for further advice.

Black and Brown in Bioethics founders:

Matimba Swana (University of Bristol), Harleen Kaur Johal (University of Bristol) , Kumeri Bandara (University of Oxford)

BBB24 was made possible by four main sponsors and by a donation of conference space by the University of Bristol.

  • Institute of Medical Ethics: Please visit ime-uk.org for further information.