Cygna videos: expanding the team

Repository of introduction videos of our CYGNA organising team

Anne-Wil Harzing - Sat 23 Sep 2023 15:51 (updated Sun 10 Mar 2024 15:49)

In 2023, we decide to expand the CYGNA organizing team to provide more scope for new initiatives. This offered my co-founders and Lead Team members (2014-2023) Argyro Avgoustaki and Ling Eleanor Zhang, and 2017-2023 Lead Team member Shasha Zhao a chance to take up a well-deserved position in our brand-new consulting team.

Since 2014, the CYGNA network has grown from a small group of London-based women to a multinational network of more  than 350 members in 35+ countries, working at different career stages, in different roles, and at very different types of universities. We therefore wanted the organizing team to be more representative of the CYGNA membership. This offered many CYGNA members an opportunity to take on a more active role in the network. Below you will find our current teams organized by geographical structure.

In addition to their specific duties, all CYGNA team members are also actively involved in organising meetings, ensuring CYGNA culture is respected and nurtured, contributing useful information to the mailing list, coordinating conference meet-ups, and making new members feel welcome. We praise ourselves lucky to have such a stellar team of female academics willing to sacrifice their own time to create more supportive, collaborative, and positive academics cultures.

CYGNA Lead team

Ciara, Clarice, and Christa joined me to form the new CYGNA Lead Team. Ciara and Clarice provide frontline leadership, coordinating and liaising with the wider CYGNA team and providing coherence for CYGNA activities. They also lead on improving membership engagement.

• Ciara O'Higgins, Deusto Business School, Spain
• Clarice Santos, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
• Christa Sathish, University of Westminster, United Kingdom

Anne-Wil and Christa ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the network by taking care of the membership, JICS list,website, events calendar, social media, design, and data crunching. Below you can find 1.5 minute clips in which they introduce themselves and tell us why they are passionate about CYGNA.

CYGNA UK/Europe team

Tatiana, Satkeen, Sylwia, and Joanna are providing crucial additional womanpower in the UK/Europe. In addition to contributing to the organisation of our 10-year anniversary they will take the lead in a new mentoring and coaching initiative, as well as in increasing diversity of the network.

• Tatiana Andreeva, Maynooth University, Ireland
• Satkeen Azzizadeh, Middlesex University, UK
• Sylwia Ciuk, Oxford Brooks University, UK
• Joanna Karmowska, Oxford Brooks University, UK

Below you can find 1.5 minute clips in which they introduce themselves and tell us why they are passionate about CYGNA.

CYGNA North team

Our CYGNA North team - Axèle, Martyna, and Annie - ensure that geographical distance from London doesn't prevent our members from attending a face-to-face CYGNA meeting. They have been organising a very successful full-day CYGNA North event for several years now.

• Axèle Giroud, University of Manchester, UK
• Martyna Śliwa, Durham University, UK
• Yingqi (Annie) Wei, University of Leeds, UK 

CYGNA Asia Pacific team

Right from the early years of our network we have had a substantial membership in the Asia-Pacific area. Shea, Heejin, and Ting will be taking the lead in helping us address the needs of this region. As they all originate from one country in the Asia Pacific, but work another, they have a wealth of experience we can draw on. 

• Shea Fan, RMIT University, Australia
• Heejin Kim, Tohoku University, Japan
• Ting Liu, Kyoto University, Japan

Below you can find 1.5 minute clips in which they introduce themselves and tell us why they are passionate about CYGNA.

First CYGNA lead team & consulting team

CYGNA was founded by Argyro, Ling, and myself, with Shasha joining in 2017. In these years we have built up the network from a dozen interested female academics in the London area to a thriving multinational network, organising more than 50 meetings in the process. The video below is a recording of the official thank-you for our first Lead team.

Argyro, Ling, and Shasha are now taking a step back to a well-deserved position in our consulting team. This will provide the network with continuity and the ability to learn from their collective experiences over the past 6-9 years.

• Ling Eleanor Zhang, ESCP [2014-2023], founding member, consulting team [left]
• Argyro Avgoustaki, ESCP [2014-2023], founding member, consulting team [middle]
• Shasha Zhao, University of Surrey [2017-2023], consulting team [right]
• Anne-Wil Harzing, Middlesex University [2014-current], founding member

Related pages

• About Cygna - Background on the CYGNA network
• Quick overview - Overview of presenations in our meetings with linked slidedecks
• Meetings - Information about forthcoming CYGNA meetings, and links to prior years
• Membership - Information for and about the Cygna network membership
• Readings and inspirations - Inspirational readings and resources for female academics
• The Cygna charter - Documents our CYGNA charter
• Cygna videos - Repository of introduction videos of our CYGNA organising team
• Cygna history - Tracing the history of our network since 2014, includes links to all of our meetings
• Frequently asked questions - Everything you may want to know about the CYGNA network and more
• The SWAN project - Initiated by Christa Sathish and Clarice Santos and implemented by Jacqueline Leon Ribas, this project created two swans reflecting CYGNA’s equal, inclusive, collective identity and the diversity of the network and its members
• Conference meet-ups - Provides brief write-ups of CYGNA conference meet-ups
• 10-year Anniversary event - Programme page for our 10-year anniversary event
• International Women's Day - Our collection of posts for international women's day