Warwick Law School’s Dr Jane Bryan was featured on BBC Sounds this week (Monday 30^th May) discussing the Say My Name Project and the negative impacts routine mispronunciation and name avoidance can have on an individual’s feeling of belonging and visibility.

Dr Bryan was invited by Sandra Godley to talk on her BBC CWR show about the Say My Name research and the importance of respecting names.

Aiming to explore and promote respectful interactions around names, the Say My Name project is all about creating a culture of inclusivity, within a diverse learning community.

The project explored whether a lack of familiarity with the pronunciation and spelling of the names of others creates barriers to teaching and learning, and social interactions. The project captured the experiences of both those encountering names with which they are unfamiliar and the experiences of bearers of names that many find unfamiliar, including those who adapt their names or adopt new names to navigate this issue.

Working with staff and students with names many find unfamiliar, the project has created guidance on things that can be done, both individually and institutionally, to ensure both students and staff feel safe and comfortable using their preferred name, without needing to change to fit in.

The interview starts at 41 minutes. Listen now!Link opens in a new window

The SMN project was one of the Coventry Creates 2021 projects for City of Culture and Jane collaborated with Verity Pabla, a local singer-songwriter and music producer to produce two tracks which shared her research in a different form. Find out more.

As part of this collaboration, the team are inviting 11-18 year olds to remix one of the Coventry Creates outputs (a liquid drum n bass track – ‘From Afar’) in an exciting new competition. The winner will have the opportunity to drop their remix on the I'm Not A Machine Music label and receive guidance and support form Verity, one of UK's finest A&Rs. The deadline to enter is Thursday 30 June 2022. Find out more.

Find out more about the project: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/dean-of-students-office/community-values-education/saymyname/Link opens in a new window

Guidance on how to approach names that are unfamiliar: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/dean-of-students-office/community-values-education/saymyname/projectdetails/library/Link opens in a new window