Vanessa Ho

Profile

Thesis title

Leveraging data to challenge inequalities at work (working title)

Supervisors

• Professor Lizzie Barmes
• Professor Kate Malleson

Summary of research

Data can expose inequalities and evaluate policies and practices, which may inform decision-making and management. This is in part influenced by the legislation and regulations, as well as equality accreditation schemes. However, the increasingly sophisticated data-focused approach is set against a backdrop of persistent inequalities in the workplace.

This project seeks to understand the contexts in which workplace equality data, especially quantitative data, is used and how the risk of underuse, overuse or misuse may be exacerbated and mitigated. The analysis will focus on the higher education sector in Britain, as a case study, and draw on the critical literature on equality and data, doctrinal legal analysis, and empirical evidence from interviews with data stakeholders in British higher education. 

Biography

Vanessa is an academic with multidisciplinary backgrounds. She is a Reader in Pharmacology and the Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at St George’s University of London, the UK’s specialist health university. Her activities span strategic development, diversity and inclusion practices, laboratory research on vascular control and cannabinoid signalling, and education of biomedical science and medical students. She is a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE).

Vanessa holds an MA in Natural Sciences (Pharmacology) and a PhD in Vascular Pharmacology from the University of Cambridge. She also received an MA in Law with Distinction and the Dean’s Award from the University of Law. She is a recipient of the QMUL Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences PhD Studentship.

Research