The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is committed to eradicating racism in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and in academia broadly. As WID is part of those systems, we have a responsibility to take action, make change, educate ourselves, confront racism, and build a more anti-racist organization.
To that end, this page provides links to resources and collections to help WIDites to begin or continue anti-racist work in the lab, in the classroom, in mentorship, in recruiting and hiring, and in every day work in the academy. If you have resources you wish to share here, please submit them in a ticket at comms.wid.wisc.edu.
A perspective piece published on June 2 in Science from the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID) suggests that outdated classroom teaching methods discourage members of historically excluded communities (HECs) from graduating with a degree in science. Lead author, Jo Handelsman states “Outdated classroom teaching models are discriminatory, ultimately, we need to stop trying to fix the students and instead focus on our classrooms.”
Faculty Focus article from Floyd Cheung, Cynthia Ganote, and Tasha Souza, who define microresistance as small-scale individual or collaborative efforts that empower targeted people and allies to cope with, respond to, and/or challenge microaggressions with a goal of disrupting systems of oppression as they unfold in everyday life, thereby creating more inclusive institutions.
Native Land Digital strives to create and foster conversations about the history of colonialism, Indigenous ways of knowing, and settler-Indigenous relations, through educational resources such as the map and Territory Acknowledgement Guide.
An initiative in spring 2021 sponsored by the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) focused on promoting awareness, understanding and commitment to change academic biology environments to be more inclusive.
The Inclusive Leadership Learning Cohort series is hosted by the GradFUTURES and Access, Diversity, and Inclusion teams of the Graduate School. The series offers seven unique sessions with the primary goal of preparing graduate students with inclusive leadership skills as a way to combat systemic racism.
From Nature (Danielle McCullough & Ruth Gotian): Universities and those who work there must reimagine spaces, behaviour and processes to promote a sense of belonging for everyone, say Danielle McCullough and Ruth Gotian.
During The UW Now Livestream event on July 23, Wilcots joined psychology professor Patricia Devine and Cheryl Gittens, the interim chief diversity officer and assistant vice provost in UW–Madison’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement, for a discussion about building a more inclusive campus.
2019 Guggenheim Fellow and New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi discussed his renowned book “How to Be an Antiracist” on Monday, July 20 at 7:00 p.m. with Dr. Charlene M. Dukes, president of Prince George’s Community College.
Due to the historic and urgent nature of the ongoing Black Lives Matter uprising against police brutality, and 400 years of colonial and state violence, Science for the People will hold a call this coming Monday, June 15, at 7:30 EDT, focusing on the uprising and the role of the radical science community, rooted in anti-racism and decolonial praxis.
Notflawless.ai is a project of the Algorithmic Justice League. The Algorithmic Justice League is an organization that combines art and research to illuminate the social implications and harms of artificial intelligence. AJL’s mission is to raise public awareness about the impacts of AI, equip advocates with empirical research to bolster campaigns, build the voice and choice of most impacted communities, and galvanize researchers, policymakers, and industry practitioners to mitigate AI bias and harms.
UW Libraries offers a commitment to diversity and inclusion and a host of anti-racism resources and materials, including an Undergraduate Resource Guide to the Black Lives Matter Movement.
The Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement offers a wealth of resources intended to help White community members educate themselves about the systems of racial oppression that undergird American institutions and victimize people of color, and for effectively allying with the cause of anti-racism.
Inclusive teaching can dramatically affect the experiences of students. The Collaborative for Advancing Learning and Teaching offers training in inclusive teaching that teaches, among other skills, how to interrupt biases in the classroom.
Successful mentorship is vital to early career researchers. The Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement offers a a six-hour workshop to improve mentorship to diverse trainees, interrupt implicit biases, and support greater diversity in research.
In most research fields, racial minorities remain underrepresented, especially in leadership positions. Many changes must start at the top. The Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute offers workshops that provide people in positions of power with the resources they need to make smart hires and lead departments well.
University Communications, which publishes the UWMadScience blog, is observing the call to action to undertake deliberate efforts to challenge systemic anti-Black racism in science and academia.
The Institute of Physics’s statement on Black Lives Matter and the sustainable and systemic change that is needed.
Black in Computing and Our Allies for Equity and Fairness’s open letter to the computing community.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes for Nature about the work Black scientists are doing to call out racism, the marches, and academic strike.
This interview from CNN with author Robin DiAngelo explores white fragility and DiAngelo’s 2018 book.
Co-Founder of blackcomputeHER.org, Quincy Brown shares an open letter from Black computer scientists calling for community action.
#ShutDownSTEM on June 10. This link provides resources for non-Black STEM workers to understand structural racism in STEM and take action to eradicate it and for Black STEM colleagues to seek healing and self-care.
