Pro Vice Chancellor Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Rosa Parks Symposium
The Rosa Parks Symposium is an annual event which reflects on the implications of Rosa Park's contributions to the race equality agenda.
Date and time: 9 December 2025, 10:00 - 15:30
Venue: Norcroft Centre, University of Bradford
21st Rosa Parks Symposium 2025
The Centre for Inclusion and Diversity (CfID) is delighted to be hosting the 21st Annual Rosa Parks Symposium, a space to converge and engage in courageous conversations to reflect, challenge, and re-imagine what belonging means in today’s world.
The question - “does my belonging threaten your belonging?” is an invitation to pause and consider why, in so many contexts, one group’s inclusion is perceived as a loss for another.
Register for the Symposium
Belonging in a Changing World: Does my belonging threaten your belonging?
Belonging is not, and should never be a scarce commodity. Yet time and again, history shows us that the presence of one group has been seen as a threat to another. Rosa Parks’ quiet courage reminds us that dignity and belonging should never be rationed, nor treated as a zero-sum game. Instead, belonging can be abundant, shared, and strengthened when extended to all.
The following thematic areas will guide our discussion and reflections:
- The psychology of belonging and exclusion: Why inclusion can feel threatening, and how can we shift those perceptions?
- The role of power, systems and structures in shaping who belongs.
- Intersectionality and the layered experiences of belonging across race, gender, disability, faith, sexuality and class.
- Belonging across borders, in the context of migration, diaspora and global interdependence.
- Practical pathways for moving from scarcity to abundance: Embedding belonging in institutions, and communities.
- The power of arts, culture and storytelling to re-imagine belonging as wide-ranging and inclusive.
Who is the Symposium for?
- senior leaders and members of governing bodies
- people and culture directors and professionals, EDI leads and professionals.
- frontline staff in public, private, voluntary and community sector organisations
- researchers
- students and pupils
- trade unions and other practitioners.
By engaging with our theme, we hope to spark curiosity, dialogue, and learning to move us closer to Rosa Parks’ vision of dignity, justice, and community for all. Rosa Parks Symposium is about more than discussion, it is about creating a collective space to listen, to question, and to learn. We welcome you to join us in this spirit of curiosity and courage as we honour Rosa Parks’ legacy and continue our shared journey toward justice, inclusion and community for all.
I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.
Rosa Parks