DIVERSITY
We have all heard of diversity & inclusion . Most of us know that it ’ s very important , but what are we actually talking about ? We talked with Ilay , who gave her perception the topic . She is very passionate about the topic , knows a lot about the topic and has her own opinions on the topic , we learned some new things from her .
& INCLUSION
Written by : Jasmijn Kruijssen & Jenna Claassens
Designed by : Jasmijn Kruijssen
Ilay Sensagir
To learn more about diversity and inclusion we talked to Ilay Sensagir . Ilay is a 33-year-old female , who has been working at BUas since 2019 and is currently working as a researcher and lecturer at the Academy for Hotel and Facility since 2020 . She teaches the specialization Diversity & Inclusion within the Organisational Behaviour course and her research interests lie at the intersection of inclusive leadership and the individual ’ s responsibility in co-creating inclusive work environments . Ilay was a student herself here at BUas . She obtained both her Bachelor ’ s and Master ’ s degrees at the Media Academy . Ilay was born and raised in Germany , whereas her parents are from Turkey , which means that she grew up between the German and Turkish culture and was raised bilingual . She gave us her perception of diversity and inclusion .
What does diversity and inclusion mean to you ?
“ Diversity means for me all the different dimensions that compose one person ’ s identity . Such as gender , ethnicity , sexual orientation , personality , neurodiversity , race , etc . You can have diversity and not have inclusion . This means that you can have a collection of a lot of different people , but if those people don ’ t feel included , you don ’ t leverage the power of the diversity . So , inclusion means understanding how people differ from one another and reaping the benefits of their differences .”
Why do you believe diversity and inclusion is important ?
“ When it comes to diversity , it depends very much on the context . Having diversity just for diversity ’ s sake is not always going to work out . Diversity is very much at its best when it adds value to the outcome , which includes innovative processes and the necessity for diverse thinking . I believe when it comes to inclusion , in a society where diversity is strongly present and we want to make room for people to express their beliefs and values , we sometimes miss out on inclusion and too quickly agree to disagree . I just believe that it is a sort of false hope that we have to find one way of doing it in the right way and impose it on everyone , this won ’ t work going forward . You might think that different opinions lead to conflict , but it can lead to negotiation and attempting to understand one another , and respectfully finding a way to facilitate and accommodate people ’ s needs , but I ’ m also aware that this has multi-faceted complexity .
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Why did you choose to dive deeper into the subject of diversity and inclusion ?
“ I think it makes more sense when I answer this question from two perspectives . From a practical perspective , I received the assignment from my manager to redesign , with two other colleagues , the course Organisational Behaviour . My colleagues and I wanted to develop three specializations for students to choose from , and both of them had immediately an idea of what they wanted to offer students . Whereas I had to do some soul searching . To answer the question from a personal perspective , given my research interest as well as my personal and professional experiences and observations , I embarked on my quest on developing the Diversity & Inclusion specialization . I intended to offer a course for students where they feel prepared for certain behavioural dynamics in a work environment and where they learn first to not compromise their identity , including their values and beliefs .