From The College Fix, Ocean sciences must incorporate DEI, scholars argue
Ocean science researchers must work “towards equity and justice” in their field, according to a group of scholars. Their academic paper includes a call for scholars to “[a]dvocate for and actively create opportunities for your BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and female colleagues, even when this means personally stepping aside/turning down opportunities.” Nature’s open-access publication, npj ocean sustainability, published the paper.
Proposals focused on a variety of policies, including specifically promoting minority groups. These applied to funding, such as in the call for “More grants awarded to underrepresented researchers,” and to citations, such as in the calls to “Check whether your reference lists are gender-balanced.” They also suggest “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies and “anti-racist” training for research staff.
Ocean scientists should also educate themselves “on the work of minority scientists relevant to [their] study and consider proactively citing more work by minority scientists as an act of reparative justice and affirmative action in citational practices.”
Paper co-author Paris Stefanoudis at the University of Oxford provided The College Fix with a sampling of resources to incorporate the suggestions. “That is really hard to track since there are so many issues covered here,” Stefanoudis said, when asked about examples of the paper’s ideas being implemented. He pointed to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Gender Citation Index Balance Tool as an example of “gender-balanced referencing.”
Stefanoudis also mentioned the publication Conservation Letters’ policy as an example of the paper’s proposal to “[m]andate that publications on the Global South by those in the Global North include authors from those geographies.” The publication requires “manuscripts focused on conservation in Low and Middle Income Countries include authors from the relevant country/countries.”
The researchers also suggested the special recognition of “individuals from underrepresented groups through awards, invited talks, keynote lectures at conferences etc.”
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| Asha de Vos |
One of the researchers, Asha de Vos of the Oceans Institute of University of Western Australia, spoke regarding the contents of the paper and a related op-ed she wrote in the New York Times at a British Ecological Society conference.
There she received an award in recognition of her research on blue whales, use of “storytelling as a tool to share the magic of our world’s oceans,” and desire to “empower the next generation of diverse ocean heroes to become custodians of their patch of ocean.” de Vos also stated that the award recognized her work of “ensuring that these spaces are more inclusive, diverse and equitable.”
The article also promotes the use and increased funding of open access journals rather than traditional publications that place most of their research behind a paywall, suggesting a “tiered structure of Open Access fees based on geography” as well as calling for funding agencies to “Mandate dissemination of results particularly to communities in study areas.”
How about everybody in marine sciences try to do the best they can?
VodkaPundit at PJM, I Can't Believe This Is a Real Science Class at a Real University
. . . I did a double-take on Professor Johnson's position at Rice. It took a minute to sink in, but despite Johnson's doctorate in chemistry, she doesn't work in Rice's renowned chemistry department. Johnson works in the university's DEI department.
In Chem 125, Johnson will instruct her undergrads — who are expected to pony up around $78,278 for the privilege of attending during the 2022-23 academic year — on how to "apply chemical tools and analysis to understand black life in the US," along with her "personal reflections and proposals for addressing inequities in chemistry and chemical education."
In other words, Tom Lehrer can teach you more about chemistry for free in 85 seconds than Professor Johnson can for thousands of dollars over an entire semester.
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