Iyiola Solanke: ‘I looked around and saw that few of my colleagues were black women’

Iyiola Solanke, professor of European Union law at the University of Leeds, is building a database of black female professors. She tells Anna McKie why she took this step.

Why did you decide to create a list?

Last year, I was promoted to professor at my university. I looked around and realised that very few of my colleagues were black women. I wanted to see where the others were and what they were doing. So I made a list of the professors I knew, sent it to them, and they came back with other names. Every time I added names, I sent it to those people. It was a snowballing methodology.