Each year, local Gypsies and Travellers, together with local dignitaries, friends and members of the wider community, come together to remember the “Night of the Gypsies” on 2 August 1944, when 2,897 Roma and Sinti men, women and children were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Nazi regime.
This special service gives us the opportunity to reflect, remember all those who suffered and lost their lives, and stand together in the hope that the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten.
Marie Bowers, co-chair of ACERT, is Technician in Charge of the Physiology Teaching Lab at the University of Glasgow and a member of the Physiology Society. In a blog post, as part of the 150 voices of Physiology Series, Marie talks about how her colleagues in the Society have supported her in developing projects like “Science Travels”.
I now find myself identifying as a Romany woman, a teaching technician and a Doctoral candidate
For the majority of my working life, I have been the only Romany in the lab, or at the conference, or at the outreach event. However, that can and should change to include members from our diverse communities of Romany and Travellers in physiology research and teaching.
The project aims to engage Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showman and Boater students in physiology and STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) more widely and educate our undergraduates and institutions about the communities and the health, education and societal inequalities they face.
Marie pays tribute to the members of the Physiological Society who have helped her develop the project and take it from a pub audience of Glasgow Skeptics, to Westminster, the Scottish Parliament and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In her opinion, the Society is: “people willing to identify opportunities, to share information and to support the efforts of colleagues even when their ideas sound a little ‘out there'”.
The Physiological Society provides the space and the motivation to attempt this work. The Society helped me find my voice; my hope now is that it helps others to find theirs.
While expressing gratitude to her colleagues, Marie is realistic about the challenges that lie ahead.
There is work to be done; decolonisation of research and teaching, co-creation of research with underrepresented groups, and true recognition of the diversity of the physiology workforce.
Traveller experiences of education have been mixed – but times are changing. Across Britain, families are seeing how early years education can help children grow in confidence, build friendships, and thrive. From Wolvey to Darlington, parents and teachers are sharing stories of children getting the best start in life.
