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But What Can We Do? Developing Strategies for Change

Session: Inspiring a New Generation of Seismology Leaders

Type: Oral

Date: 4/21/2021

Presentation Time: 10:45 AM Pacific

Description: 

2020 saw the geosciences community reaffirm its commitment to the development of a fairer and more equal field, especially in terms of racial equality. However, developing strategies to address the challenges of poor representation can be challenging, especially if we wish to do this in a way that does not further burden minority groups to make the changes we wish to see.

Here, I will present a potential strategy for identifying barriers to inclusion and retention within academic geoscience settings, based upon work first undertaken in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, and now being expanded across other departments in the UK [1].

Particular highlights apparent from this work included the importance of cultural context (for example understanding the reasons that students may choose not to study geosciences-related disciplines, rather than assuming that they are simply unaware of the potential), and the need to treat ethnic minority populations as a non-homogeneous population.

Finally, this work will discuss how similar strategies may be replicated (or preferably improved!) at other institutions, recognising that this is only one possible avenue to achieving change.

[1] https://bit.ly/oxford-bame-report - with many thanks to the other authors and contributors to this report

Presenting Author: Ben Fernando

Student Presenter: Yes

Authors