Lab heads should learn to talk about racism
Fundamentally, tackling racism and intolerance in science requires an acknowledgement from us all that it exists. This is a call on senior scientists to speak up and to invite others to do so.
What does it take to make an institution more diverse?
As you expand recruiting efforts — whether for students, faculty, staff, or proposals — a strategic recruitment plan can help you decide how to prioritize time and resources. What does it take to make an institution more diverse? (Nature, 6 June 2018) offers some ideas for getting started.
Toolkit to Mitigate Bias in Recruitment & Hiring
The Avarna organization provides learning experiences, assessments, implementation planning, mentorship and coaching, intentional convenings, and resources for the outdoor and environmental sector. They have made their toolkit for mitigating bias in recruitment and hiring freely available.
HBCUs
A site to learn more about HBCUs — both individually across the country, but also provides general information on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science
By analyzing data from nearly all US PhD recipients and their dissertations across three decades, this paper finds demographically underrepresented students innovate at higher rates than majority students, but their novel contributions are discounted and less likely to earn them academic positions. The discounting of minorities’ innovations may partly explain their underrepresentation in influential positions… Read more »
Gender-Heterogeneous Working Groups Produce Higher Quality Science
The first empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that a gender-heterogeneous problem-solving team generally produced journal articles perceived to be higher quality by peers than a team comprised of highly-performing individuals of the same gender.
Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers
Introduces a general framework for modeling functionally diverse problem-solving agents.
DEI Statements Are Not About Ideology. They’re About Accountability.
Chronicle of Higher education article with recommendations on centering accountability in DEI statements.
Ten Steps to Protect BIPOC Scholars in the Field
A very short, digestible, actionable set of recommendations for improving inclusion of students and colleagues who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.
A set of principles and practical suggestions for equitable fieldwork in biology
After reflecting on their own research programs, the article’s authors propose four general principles to guide equitable, inclusive, ethical, and safe practices in field biology: be collaborative, be respectful, be legal, and be safe. This article provides suggestions for action-oriented approaches to make field biology more equitable, with particular attention to how those with greater… Read more »
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