Our Chief Diversity Officer, Prof. Dr. Jane Murray Cramm, participated in a panel at the first Sylvia Vermeulen Lecture on Tuesday, April 16, where Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Grapperhaus gave a keynote lecture. The themes of the meeting were digitalisation, opportunity inequality and connection.
During the panel, led by Chris Kalonga (ISO), and featuring Prof. Dr. Bernold Nieuwesteeg (ESL) and Wout van Wijngaarden (CIO/Director of IT), Jane explained how increasing digitalisation is creating more opportunity inequality: for example, people who lack digital skills (that's about 20% of people living in Rotterdam!) experience a lot of difficulties in seeking (medical) services.
In addition, she emphasized that we can also use digitalization to counteract structural barriers and ensure more equality: for example, generative AI can help us understand difficult texts, thanks to Open & Responsible Science we get easy access to scientific knowledge, and thanks to various online collaboration platforms we can work from home more easily. In doing so, she also stressed the importance of remaining critical and cautious.