No progress on diversity and inclusion in 40 years
Even after decades of widespread calls for action, there is still a systemic bias—i.e., institutional culture, norms, and procedures lack diversity, equity, and inclusion and exclude people based on their social identity and/or background, in both intentional and unintentional ways—in the education of geosciences (Cooperdock et al., 2021). An environment that lacks diversity, spanning race, gender, disability, sexuality, and other social categories is often unsafe for people who do not fit those descriptors, and it contributes directly to the lack of inclusion and equity experienced by people from marginalized racial and ethnic groups (Dutt, 2020). As a result, the percentages of geoscience bachelor’s degrees awarded to students from marginalized racial and ethnic groups are far lower than the percentages for these groups in the physical sciences or across all disciplines (Beane et al., 2021).
I am dedicated to creating a diverse, equal, and inclusive environment in the classroom, lab, and field.
I believe people with different ethnicities, genders, ages, races, religions, disabilities, backgrounds, personalities, life experiences, and sexual orientations should be equally recognized, respected, and valued so that everyone is included, visible, and heard as a full member of the community.
Classroom
Classrooms are places of positive transformation. I gave lectures on “ice deformation” attended by many international students who were not native English speakers. During the lecture, I constantly emphasised the keywords so that students could keep up with the progress. Moreover, I kept paying attention to individual students during the class by tracking their facial expressions—I would slow down and provide more detailed explanations of knowledge points if any student looked puzzled. Additionally, I provided volunteer supervision after class—I actively reached out and spent extra time helping students after class, as many of them, who had difficulties following the class, were not confident enough to ask questions.
Laboratory
I hold the philosophy that mentoring is about learning from each other—the students learn new knowledge from me, and I am constantly inspired by their brilliant ideas. I adopted the lab culture that my supervisors first built—lab work is teamwork; a successful experiment relies on the contribution of everyone. Consequently, the lab work was enriched by open discussions and exciting ideas, and students were constantly excited and motivated by the new findings during the progression of their projects. In this way, the lab was no longer a lifeless room with cold machines, instead, it became a warm and safe place where everyone can find their way to success with the full support of every team member.
Field
“The field” as the domain of rugged straight men persists, and its endurance reflects the shameful reality that many who do not fit this archetype must contend with hostile environments involving alienation, unsafe conditions, harassment, and assault (Cooperdock et al., 2021). I am a major participant in field works in Antarctica, mountain glaciers, and seismic-active zones. I believe (1) respecting an individual’s physical and mental limits is important, (2) everyone needs to be equipped with sufficient safety gear, and (3) safety training is essential for everyone.
This page only contains a brief introduction.
Please contact me for carefully constructed details of my plan.
[1] Beane, R. J., Baer, E. M. D., Lockwood, R., Macdonald, R. H., McDaris, J. R., Morris, V. R., Villalobos, I. J., and White, L. D.: Uneven increases in racial diversity of US geoscience undergraduates, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00196-6, 1 December 2021.
[2] Bernard, R. E. and Cooperdock, E. H. G.: No progress on diversity in 40 years, Nat Geosci, 11, 292–295, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0116-6, 2018.
[3] Cooperdock, E. H. G., Chen, C. Y., Guevara, V. E., and Metcalf, J. R.: Counteracting Systemic Bias in the Lab, Field, and Classroom, AGU Advances, 2, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020av000353, 2021.
[4] Dutt, K.: Race and racism in the geosciences, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0519-z, 1 January 2020.