Action Labs | Arts & Creative Sessions | Questions Driven Sessions | Reading Seminars | Workshops

Conference Sessions

Action Labs

  • Action labs are a catalyst for starting or progressing on an ongoing/planned action. Labs prioritize collaboration, conspiring, mentoring, and advising to leverage collective power and insights to generate strong coalitions.

  • This Action Lab reviews potential waves to remove barriers including redesigning field trips/introductory courses, creating a post-bacclaureate or bridge program that can provide a path into graduate school, and getting rid of graduate entry exams.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Lauren Moseley, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University

    • Hannah Sweets, Columbia University

  • This Action Lab focuses on: Building a memory of DEIA at your institution/org; Approaching leadership about making change; How to get funding for your initiative; How to unionize or support ongoing efforts to unionize; Crossover meetup of affinity groups – what can we do together?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Kailani Acosta, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

    • Kashuana Mason, University of Arkansas

  • This Action Lab reviews Free and Open Source for Geospatial https://foss4g.org/ ; EJScreen; Creating transparent and inclusive introduction to GIS products; leveraging existing tools like (Humanitarian Open Street Map, Mapping prejudice project https://mappingprejudice.umn.edu/data-and-map-launch-page/index.html); GIS for environmental justice.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Courtney Thompson, National Academy of Sciences

  • This Action Lab focuses on: Creating resource maps for incoming students to the program/university, particularly for students of color and international students; Anti-eviction map; Demographic data as a challenge to power – remapping “minority/majority”; Making mentor maps; Unveiling the hidden curriculum; Creating a peer-reviewed, open access journal related to justice in geosciences; Bring GIS into your classroom; Making a safety map for a field trip/camp.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Courtney Thompson, National Academy of Sciences

  • This Action Lab looks at Regional coalitions of SNC participants; Gaining institutional support for regional affinity groups that build coalitions across institutions at a regional level, and Building community for students of color, particularly at PWI institutions.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Courtney Thompson, National Academy of Sciences

Arts & Creative Sessions

  • Artists, humanists, and creatives are encouraged to engage in creating art, dance, music, poetry and other works to share with a broad audience. Works should be inspired by a central theme or topic that needs more exposure, emphasis, or illumination.

  • In this session we will leverage the power of storytelling to narrate hidden histories, realities, and future relationships between our bodies, our communities, and the earth. We will use artistic and creative expression to tell stories with longevity because they honor the liberatory ecologies emergent from narratives of earth justice. This session will focus on visual and literary arts and participants will create works with paper, journals, canvas, colored pencils, watercolor and collage materials. Participants will leave the session with completed or in-progress works that narrate rare earth stories through poetry, artwork, collages, fiction writing, autobiography, screenplay and more.

    In-Person Event

  • In this session we will leverage the power of storytelling to narrate hidden histories, realities, and future relationships between our bodies, our communities, and the earth. We will use artistic and creative expression to tell stories with longevity because they honor the liberatory ecologies emergent from narratives of earth justice. This session will focus on performing arts and participants will create works in collaboration with each other and a multi-instrumentalist facilitator. Participants will leave the session with completed or in-progress works that narrate rare earth stories through songwriting, dance, musical composition, and more.

    In-Person Event

  • Description text goes hereaIn this session, we will examine the gravity of mourning and grief in the wake of catastrophe, apocalypse, plague, and injustice that is past, ongoing, and forthcoming. We will grapple with the vastness of grief to motivate artistic and creative expression that works to acknowledge, repair, and heal extractive interpersonal and intergenerational relationships. In this session we will focus on visual and literary arts and participants will create works with paper, journals, canvas, colored pencils, watercolor and collage materials. Participants will leave the session with completed or in-progress works that mourn, grieve and heal through poetry, artwork, collages, fiction writing, autobiography, screenplay and more.

    In-Person Event

  • In this session, we will examine the gravity of mourning and grief in the wake of catastrophe, apocalypse, plague, and injustice that is past, ongoing, and forthcoming. We will grapple with the vastness of grief to motivate artistic and creative expression that works to acknowledge, repair, and heal extractive interpersonal and intergenerational relationships. In this session we will focus on performing arts and participants will create works in collaboration with each other and a multi-instrumentalist facilitator. Participants will leave the session with completed or in-progress works that mourn, grieve and heal through songwriting, dance, musical composition, and more.

    In-Person Event

  • Works and works-in-progress created in each session will be showcased to other artists, creatives, conference participants and broader virtual audiences through a gallery walk, readings, and performances.

    In-Person Event

Questions Driven Sessions

  • Participants will engage in focused conversation to create a list of questions that probe the edges of our understanding, dispute existing frameworks, and unearth new theories and methodologies that refine the process of question-making.

  • What is geoscience? Who is a geoscientist? What do geoscientists do? What are the languages of geoscience? What is unique, particular, or distinct about the ways geoscientists approach their work? What do geoscientists inherit? Where are the opportunities to disrupt the status quo in the process of becoming a geoscientist?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Joelle Labastide, American Association for the Advancement of Science Washington DC

  • How might we remake the very foundation of geoscience to recognize justice as a core component of what defines excellence? How can we relieve the tension between different disciplines and the outputs that define excellence within them? Through what mechanisms could this shift occur? What are the systems (e.g., promotion, hiring, recruitment, service) that would be impacted by this shift? How can we free ourselves from restrictive and limiting notions of productivity? Why, and to whom, are different models of success threatening?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Kashauna Mason, University of Arkansas

  • How do we approach or encounter a never-ending catastrophe? What did, does, and will the end of the world look like? How can ritual and ceremony aid us in grieving and mourning all we've lost to climate change and ecological collapse? What opportunities for justice exist after/at/before the end of the world?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Cecile Florence Yezou, University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • How is storytelling used to frame, understand, and deepen encounters with Earth? What stories are familiar within earth & environmental science/justice and which stories are missing? Who are the storytellers, and who hears them? What goals are not being met when science communication ignores different ways of knowing?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Hannah Sweets, Columbia University

  • What is the role of institutional leadership in starting, enabling, or accelerating change? What is the role of other forms of leadership? What models of institutional leadership can efficiently advance justice in geoscience? What models of leadership can effectively build coalitions between institutional and community leadership? How do we leverage coalitions to perturb systems and make systematic change?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Joelle Labastide, American Association for the Advancement of Science Washington DC

  • How can we recognize the ways that colonialism lives on in Earth-learning environments today? How might we move towards decolonization and abolition in these spaces? What roles could geoscientists play in the interrogation of the military-industrial complex, dismantling of borders, or examination of policing? How might such involvement shape the research questions, tools and frameworks geoscientists have available to them?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Hannah Sweets, Columbia University

  • Why not overrepresented instead of underrepresented? How might the ways we examine and contextualize historical demographic data change with an ‘overrepresentation’ framework? How do the intersections of identities influence geoscience degree attainment, and how does this differ between subdisciplines? What limitations and possibilities are enmeshed in our data, particularly to the extent that such data can be used to support broadening participation in Earth and environmental sciences?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Eradajere Oleita, Talk Naija

  • What kinds of strategic partnerships between industries, communities, sectors, and programs would sustain efforts toward justice in geoscience? What do these partnerships look like, how do they build trust and maintain collaboration and co-production? How do we integrate community organizing, activism, and advocacy skills into the fabric of scientific geoscience and environmental work?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Lauren Moseley, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University

  • How do our current models of geoscience limit the ways that geospatial technologies and methodologies could inform and advance justice? What other models of practicing geoscience, Earth-learning, and relating to the Earth might promote Earth justice? How do established metrics favor frameworks that invoke “helicopter research” rather than invoke justice-oriented geoscience?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Kailani Acosta, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

  • How can we transform the geoscience workforce within a half-century? How do we equip teachers to train the next generation of geoscience leaders? How can Earth-learning occur in the absence of direct geoscience education and instead take advantage of informal learning? What strategies for science communication can transcend current white and colonial paradigms and inform new, justice-oriented models?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Chad Starks, BCS and Associates

  • How can Earth science outwardly face, and learn to serve and become accountable to, a Black, Brown, and Indigenous public? Can we break the silos around geoscience to include more human impacts of geoscience, or collaborate with social scientists to create community-driven understandings of broader impacts that resonate with the public? How can such efforts diffuse and redistribute power in a more equitable way? What tools, collaborations, or research projects can support community-engaged Earth science scholarship?

    In-Person Event

  • What does a just- or post-extractive geoscience education and workforce look like? What does a collaborative relationship with the Earth look like? What is the role of co-production of knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge in making geosciences more inclusive and deepening our understanding of Earth? How can geoscientists support LANDBACK?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Kailani Acosta, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

  • How can geoscience faculty create more inclusive (transformative, dynamic, accessible, impactful) learning environments? How can we reconfigure labs and activities to better model reality and make experiments more relevant to students’ lives? What is a radical Earth-learning environment? How might student retention outcomes change if marginalized communities are centered in the classroom and laboratory?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Kashuana Mason, University of Arkansas

  • How do models of research funding (re)entrench inequity in Earth-learning environments and limit integration of justice-oriented goals in funded projects? How do they contribute to a less inclusive geoscience workforce by funding programs that may discourage students from geoscience? How do we recognize, scale-up and sustain programs that are effective and justice-oriented?

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Lauren Moseley, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University

Reading Seminars

  • This session allows participants to engage with a selected reading (or other material/work) to generate a focused discussion. This format serves as a place of intense and prolonged discussion to absorb, interrogate, and build from an existing work.

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing two articles on demographic data in the geosciences: (1) “No progress on diversity in 40 years,” by Bernard and Cooperdock, Nature Geoscience, 2018; (2) “Uneven increases in racial diversity of US geoscience undergraduates,” by Beane et al., Communications Earth & Environment, 2021. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this article prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing two articles on hostile climates in the geosciences: (1) “Scientists from historically excluded groups face a hostile obstacle course,” by Berhe et al., Nature Geosciences, 2022; (2) “Hostile climates are barriers to diversifying the geosciences,” by Marín-Spiotta et al., Advances in Geosciences, 2020. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this article prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing a commentary article on intersectionality in the geosciences: “Applying an intersectionality lens to expand equity in the geosciences,” by Núñez et al., Journal of Geoscience Education, 2020. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this article prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing the “1972 Report”, or the report of the First National Conference on Minority Participation in Earth Science and Mineral Engineering. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this article prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing three articles and essays on environmental racism and justice: (1) “Rethinking environmental racism: White privilege and urban development in Southern California,” by Pulido, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2000; (2) “Racial capitalocene - Is the anthropocene racial?,” by Vergès, in Futures of Black Radicalism (eds. Johnson and Lubin), 2017; (3) “Differential vulnerabilities: Environmental and economic inequality and government response to unnatural disasters” by Bullard, Social Research, 2008. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this article prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing a review article on the field of geoethics: “The intersection of geoethics and diversity in the geosciences,” by Mogk, in Geoethics: Status and Future Perspectives (eds. Di Capua et al.), The Geological Society of London, Special Publications, 2020. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this article prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing a portion of the book Equity in Science: Representation, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change in Graduate Education by Julie Posselt. From the publisher: “Posselt makes the case that understanding how field-specific cultures develop is a crucial step for bringing about real change. She does this by examining existing equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts across astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, and psychology. These ethnographic case studies reveal the subtle ways that exclusion and power operate in scientific organizations and, sometimes, within change efforts themselves.” Participants are of course free to read the entirety of this book, but are specifically asked to read Chapter 1, “Equity work as science” and Chapter 3, “Eroded boundaries and everyday interactions in geoscience fieldwork” so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing two articles on the racist history of American geologic exploration: (1) “The darker side of John Wesley Powell,” by Pico, Scientific American, 2019; (2) “Ethnic cleansing and America's creation of national parks,” by Kantor, Public Land & Resources Law Review, 2007. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) these articles prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing two articles on incorporating indigenous and traditional knowledge into earth/environmental/ecological research and teaching: (1) “Braiding knowledges of braided rivers – the need for place-based perspectives and lived experience in the science of landscapes,” by Koppes, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 2022; (2) “Weaving traditional ecological knowledge into biological education: A call to action,” by Wall Kimmerer, BioScience, 2002. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) these articles prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing the nonfiction book A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None by Kathryn Yusoff. This book is described by its publisher as “a transdisciplinary conversation between black feminist theory, geography, and the earth sciences, addressing the politics of the Anthropocene within the context of race, materiality, deep time, and the afterlives of geology.” Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this book prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing the nonfiction book Pollution as Colonialism by Max Liboiron. This book is described by its publisher as “a framework for understanding scientific research methods as practices that can align with or against colonialism. They point out that even when researchers are working toward benevolent goals, environmental science and activism are often premised on a colonial worldview and access to land.” Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this book prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing an article on the role(s) of white mentors in academia: “Collectors, Nightlights, and Allies, Oh My: White Mentors in the Academy,” by Martinez-Cola, Understanding and Dismantling Privilege, 2020. In this article, Martinez-Cola uses “autoethnography rooted in Critical Race Theory counternarratives” to “identify, define, and discuss three roles White mentors play for students of Color.” Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this article prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing the creative fiction/poetry book Dyke (Geology) by Sabrina Imbler. As described by its publisher, “Through intertwined threads of autofiction, lyric science writing, and the tale of a newly queer Hawaiian volcano, Sabrina Imbler delivers a coming out story on a geological time scale. This is a small book that tackles large, wholly human questions—what it means to live and date under white supremacy, to never know if one is loved or fetishized, how to navigate fierce desires and tectonic heartbreak through the rise and eventual eruption of a first queer love.” Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this book prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing works that relate science fiction to issues of social and environmental justice: (1) an article entitled, “Indigenous science (fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate change crises” by Kyle Whyte, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2018; and (2) portions of a collection of short stories in Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha. In the spirit of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, and in the words of its publisher, this collection is comprised of “visionary tales” that span sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism, but are “united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be.” Participants are expected to read one or more stories prior to the conference, although no specific ones are assigned; the hope is for a rich discussion that surrounds common themes present in any of the stories in this collection. In other words, read what you want!

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing portions of the collection of essays in The Colors of Nature, edited by Alison Hawthorne Deming and Lauret Savoy. In the words of its publisher, this “bracing, provocative, and profoundly illuminating” collection explores “the intersection of cultural diversity and ecological awareness” and includes essays by Jamaica Kincaid, Robert Bullard, and bell hooks. Participants are expected to read one or more essays prior to the conference, although no specific essays are assigned; the hope is for a rich discussion that surrounds common themes present in any of the essays in this collection. In other words, read what you want!

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing the nonfiction book The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. As described by its publisher, this book “urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is rife with racism, misogyny, and other forms of oppression. [Prescod-Weinstein] lays out a bold new approach to science and society, beginning with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky. The Disordered Cosmos dreams into existence a world that allows everyone to experience and understand the wonders of the universe.” Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) this book prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing two articles on taking anti-racist action in the geosciences: (1) “An actionable anti-racism plan for geoscience organizations,” by Ali et al., Nature Communications, 2021; (2) “Responses to 10 common criticisms of anti-racism action in STEMM” by Gosztyla et al., PLOS Computational Biology, 2021. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) these articles prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • n this reading session, participants will be discussing two articles on involving local communities in scientific research and avoiding so-called helicopter or parachute science (a term describing how researchers drop down from an ivory tower in the Western world into a foreign community for field work). The articles are as follows: (1) “Global soil science research collaboration in the 21st century: Time to end helicopter research,” by Minasny et al., Geoderma, 2020; and (2) “A framework for co-production of knowledge in the context of Arctic research,” by Yua et al., Ecology and Society, 2022. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) these articles prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

  • In this reading session, participants will be discussing two articles on making transformative change in the academy from a geoscience perspective, at both the faculty and institutional levels: (1) “Community voices: Achieving real diversity in STEM requires the ability to transform institutions,” by Lerback et al., Nature Communications, 2022; (2) “Accelerating Change: The Power of Faculty Change Agents to Promote Diversity and Inclusive Teaching Practices” by Macdonald et al., Journal of Geoscience Education, 2019. Participants will be expected to have read (some or all of) these articles prior to the conference, so that they may engage fully in the discussion.

    In-Person and Virtual Event

Workshops

  • These sessions serve to disseminate relevant skills and expertise to the wider community from peer-experts. These sessions will be optimized for skill sharing and building capacity in leadership and other critical skills.

  • Topics: (1) The importance of disability inclusion experiential learning; (2) Models of disability and why they matter for addressing access barriers; (3) Examples and guidance on inclusive practices you can use in your own courses.

    Skills: (1) How to do an accessibility audit on field courses and other experiential learning opportunities; (2) Identifying potential solutions to access issues uncovered in accessibility audits; (3) Best practices for recruiting and retaining people with disabilities in your program.

    This workshop will explore how field education can be more accessible and inclusive for students with disabilities and other students who may have difficulty participating in "traditional" field activities. Participants will learn how to conduct a general accessibility audit of field trips and field courses, and how to think through and select appropriate solutions to access challenges. This workshop encourages participants to move away from a one-time "special case" model of accessibility to a more holistic approach that considers accessibility to be a core component of an inclusive learning environment.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Anita Marie Marshall, University of South Florida

    • Chris Atchison, National Science Foundation

  • Topics: (1) What are seminar series, and why do we have them?; (2) Epistemic exclusion within science; (3) Imagining and enacting seminar series that address exclusion.

    Skills: (1) Critically assess historical and current representation in research seminar speakers, and how this intersects with epistemic exclusion; (2) Identify challenges (structural, political, social, etc.) to shifting this representation; (3) Identify spaces of intervention within your organization, and collaboratively develop solutions that address the lack of diversity in seminar series.

    Departmental seminars are ubiquitous across research organizations, including universities, industry, governmental agencies, and nonprofits, and are thus a space to advance our communities' shared values about what ethical and equitable science looks like, and who does it. However, the line-up of speakers often fails to represent all members of our communities, specifically those historically underrepresented. We have an obligation to reframe departmental seminar series, not only as a mode for advancing conversations around science, but also to advance diversity and inclusivity. In this workshop, we will discuss a successful model of broadening speaker selection at UMass Amherst called BRiDGE. Through several exercises, this workshop provides space for participants to (2) understand the historical and present-day inequities in seminar series, and (2) collaboratively develop solutions that address the lack of diversity in seminar series. Participants will leave this workshop empowered to lead and organize DEI initiatives in their respective research communities.

    Virtual Event

    Facilitator:

    • Cam Anderson, UMass Lowell Center for Atmospheric Research

  • TOPICS: (1) Learning from the past; (2) “Doing History”: how to expand the historical record; (3) “Finding History”: how to discover answers relevant to key questions today.

    SKILLS: (1) How to discover and find records from the past; best ways to secure memory; (2) How to connect with scholars, archivists, and research centers able to provide relevant information; (3) How to frame questions about history to yield helpful results; (4) Using history to make accurate, compelling arguments.

    Workshop participants will gain access to a variety of historical sources (including biographical oral history interviews) to discover what the historical record can tell us. We will actively explore individual experiences, discuss what the evidence of history offers, and address how to apply this knowledge to promote justice and equality in geoscience.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Anna Amramina, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

    • Ron Doel, Florida State University

  • Topics: (1) Science, imperialism, colonialism (2) how does knowledge hold political power? (3) What is the role of science in a just future?

    Skills: (1) Critically analyze the role of scientific institutions in colonialism and other forms of oppression (and the reverse) (2) Distinguish between root causes and symptoms of injustice in geoscience (3) Identify the power wielded by institutional intervention strategies.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Mara Freilich, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

    • Jessica Ng, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

  • Topics: (1) Scheduling joy and purpose planning(2) Do you need to do everything to feel validated? (3) How do you say No!

    Skills: (1) Critically analyze the stressors, pulls, and obligations currently in your life 2) Distinguish between wants, needs, fomo(fear of missing out),imposter syndrome, and career advances (3) Identify the resources you have at hand to accomplish your goals.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Eradajere Oleita, Talk Naija

  • Topics: (1) All politics are local; (2) Communicating effectively; (3) What is the role of local politics in a just future?

    Skills: (1) Having confidence and understanding how to talk to elected officials; (2) How to write an elevator speech for political discussions; and (3) Identify opportunities within local politics (advisory boards, committees, etc.) to get involved.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Christopher Sylvan, University of New Mexico Main Campus

    • Onjalé Scott Price, Woods Hole Partnership Education Program

  • Topics: (1) Bystander intervention; (2) Virtual reality; (3) Theatre of the Oppressed.

    Skills: (1) "Calling in" microaggressions; (2) Allying with the microaggressed.

    Two workshop participants will engage directly with a virtual reality environment that simulates a hyper-realistic situation in which participants will need to intervene skillfully to "call in" the microaggressor and ally with the person who was microaggressed against. The rest of the workshop participants will watch the two participants engage in the simulation. After the simulations, we will collectively debrief the simulation experience with an eye toward how people can prepare for these types of interactions in real life. We will talk through how people might feel after a situation like this occurs in real life, and think about options for seeking support.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Jason Chen, College of William and Mary

    • Spencer Jones, Texas A&M University South Station

  • Topics: (1) History of Science: Decolonization of Geosciences [How did we get here? What was your path into the scientific community? (2) Creating a Safe Space: How Do We Build Trust and True Community in Science for People of Color [Dismantling inequity in geosciences through policy, practice, and education] (3) Shaping a More Equitable Future: You Can’t Be What You Can’t See [Humanizing science, The intersection between humanities and science, Moving towards openness]"

    Skills: (1) storytelling, (2) changing the dominant narrative in the history of the geosciences, (3) co-production of knowledge.

    As life on Earth faces an increasing set of challenges - natural disasters, COVID-19, monkeypox, climate and environmental injustices, and food and water insecurities - it is imperative to have more minds, more hearts, more seats at the table to solve today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Open data and open science is required to respond to such challenges. For NASA, open science is a collaborative culture within the scientific community and the general public that empowers the open sharing of data, information, and knowledge to accelerate scientific and applications-based research and understanding. NASA’s Transform to Open Science (TOPS) mission advances the principles of open science, which aims to build trust, understanding, and lead the co-production of knowledge and new discoveries. As we prepare for the Year of Open Science in 2023, the TOPS team is developing resources and activities to support and enable user communities, like yours, as they move towards open science. Join us for an interactive workshop to learn more about NASA’s TOPS mission and mind-map a mosaic in support of justice in the geosciences. The interactivity workshop will focus on discussions around open science, what role science and accessibility of science data has had on your life and community, and how best to foster a respectful and collaborative environment for future scientists on a global scale.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Yaitza Luna Cruz, NASA

    • Yvonne Ivey, NASA Headquarters

    • Cynthia Hall, NASA Headquarters

  • Topics: (1) Sexual violence and misconduct in graduate education; (2) interventions and strategies for mitigating workplace unsafety.

    Skills: (1) Leveraging scientific investigative expertise in different contexts; (2) systematic and individual failure analysis; (3) integrating disparate records to characterize uncertainty.

    Participation in this workshop (and interaction with its associated materials) requires extended engagement with subject matter that can be difficult or triggering for some of us. This includes brief narratives and critical discussion around sexual violence, including differing perspectives and enabling environments. Please consider seriously whether you are able to participate. We insist that all participants prioritize compassion and adhere to the community standards.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitators:

    • Joelle Labastide, American Association for the Advancement of Science Washington DC

    • Cecile Florence Yezou, University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Topics: (1) Concepts of environmental justice; (2) Community engagement; (3) Study design and publicly available datasets.

    Skills: (1) How to incorporate environmental justice into research question and methodology; (2) Best practices for community engagement; (3) How to go from documenting the problem to developing/supporting solutions.

    In-Person Event

    Facilitator:

    • Reagan Patterson, University of California Los Angeles