Inclusivity
Contents
Overview
Research and innovation is a product of various ideas and voices. To produce science and products that cater to both our immediate and global communities, it is crucial to involve diverse voices. Equitable, diverse, and inclusive (EDI) research practices allows the maximum of voices to be heard.
What is EDI?
Taken from the Government of Canada
EDI stands for equity, diversity, and inclusion where:
- Equity is defined as the removal of systemic barriers (unconscious bias, discrimination, racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia), enabling all individuals to have equitable opportunity to access and benefit from the program;
- Diversity is about the variety of unique dimensions, identities, qualities and characteristics individuals possess along with other identity factors; and
- Inclusion is defined as the practice of ensuring that all individuals are valued and respected for their contributions and are supported equitably in a culturally safe environment.
Our Responsibility
In the past, systematic barriers such as attitudes, policies, or practices severely limited certain groups from accessing and participating in employment, services, or programs. Attitudes may have been based on, but not limited to, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and ableism. These systematic barriers were, and still are, a big part in suffocating voices within academia and research in the wider science community, including synthetic biology.
As emerging students in the science community, we have a role in recognizing that these systematic barriers exist and must take an active role in dismantling them through “conscious and active education and engagement” (Government of Canada).
With this goal in mind, we decided to expand our inclusive efforts to address the gaps in the EDI space within science, focusing on the experiences and perspectives of marginalized groups. We aim to change the systemically flawed status quo of our current research platform.
Redefining Research Seminar
With this responsibility in mind, we decided to host conversations with current industry and academia professionals who identify as members of marginalized groups. We used a public seminar as a platform for dialogue and discussion to broaden the EDI scope in research. We hoped that through this seminar series we could:
- Amplify diverse voices
- Foster discussion among professionals about our collective responsibility
- Engage the wider community in these crucial conversations
We invited guests from marginalized groups to participate as main speakers. To guide the discussion to shed light on important topics, we tailored our questions to allow for guests to share their experiences, thoughts, and actions we can take to challenge systemic barriers that these groups face.
The dialogue was not limited to the guest speakers. The seminar format allowed the audience to not only listen to the experiences and ideas posed by the speakers, but also host their own discussions. Each seminar began with a facilitated discussion with the seminar speakers, and concluded with an open floor for audience questions and dialogue.
We believe that by hosting these discussions, we can foster new ideas that will progressively change the way that research is currently being done. We named this initiative “Redefining Research” to encompass our goal of being able to produce new ideas that challenge systemic barriers that still exist today. We aim to promote discussions that are often overlooked in research.
Throughout the length of our project, we hosted 2 Redefining Research Seminars.
Accessibility and EDI in Research
Our first seminar, titled “Accessibility and EDI in Research,” focused on highlighting diversity within our community. We invited Dr. Calvin Kuo, Dr. Vikramaditya Yadav, and PhD candidates Amy Kim and Jon Corbett to speak about their experiences in research. These individuals were chosen for their diverse backgrounds:
- Dr. Calvin Kuo (he/him), an assistant professor at UBC, works with human interfacing devices.
- Dr. Vikramaditya Yadav (he/him), an associate professor at UBC, specializes in Cellular and Molecular Engineering.
- Amy Kim (she/her), a PhD candidate studying invasive species at UBC’s Department of Botany, was invited after being introduced at a separate EDI presentation.
- Jon Corbett (he/him), a PhD candidate, is working towards creating an Indigenous programming language based on the Cree language
Figure 1. Our Human Practice team facilitating the conversation with our panelists
All of these guests had valuable insight, based off of their first-hand experiences as people who identify as part of the EDI community. From this seminar, we learned that challenging systemic barriers is a continual and arduous process that is still an open wound for many. To heal this open wound, the panelists encouraged the audience to combat these barriers by creating inclusive efforts, small or big, at your position. During our seminar, the panellists and audience members discussed how the longstanding barriers can continually push you down, but in order to break them, one must preservere to create more foundations and recognition for marginalized groups in science.
Overall, while our first seminar had its bumps and needed much improvement, the content that was shared and discussed among the panelists and our peers was invaluable and shifted perspectives in how intentional we are about being inclusive in the research space.
LGBTQIA2S+ in Research
Figure 2. Our promotional graphic for our second Redefining Research Seminar
After receiving feedback from our first seminar, we decided to decrease the amount of panellists to highlight the individuals more and to allow for a more focused discussion. We also changed the model of our seminar to allow for a live question asking platform so that the audience can easily ask follow up questions instead of waiting for the end. This was intended to foster a more conversation-like seminar with the panellists and the audience members. In light of Pride Month, our second seminar focused on LGBTQIA2S+ inclusion in research.
The term LGBTQIA2S+ has evolved to ensure inclusivity across all spectrums of identity and will continue to continue to change as we progress. Gender, sexual, and attraction identities are complex and our seminar was established to learn more about our community members and how we can open up our research space to more diverse perspectives.
For this seminar, we invited Dr. Warren Cardinal-McTeague and PhD candidate Becca Beutel:
- Dr. Warren Cardinal-McTeague (he/him) is Métis and Cree from northeastern Alberta and identifies as Gay, Two-Spirit, and Indigiqueer.
- Becca Beutel (she/her) is a queer PhD candidate in physical oceanography at UBC.
Figure 3. Our online Redefining Research Seminar with Dr. Warren Cardinal-McTeague and Becca Beutel
During our session, the panellists brought up that bringing in inclusivity is about centering care, mutual support, and valuing different perspectives. Some of these things can be high effort like our seminar, but other things can be as simple as volunteering your pronouns. They also shared their experience with microagressions and how they had to work a bit more harder to earn respect from their peers.
One important point that resonated with our iGEM team was that with any marginalized community, sometimes there is too much pressure on the people of these communities to do the work to create inclusive spaces. However, Becca pointed out that change and being inclusive starts with making our community safe and then brining in people of marginalized communities. While this was said in the context of our LGBTQIA2S+ seminar, we thought this notion can be applied to any inclusive effort and mindsets.
After the seminar, Dr. Cardinal-McTeague and Becca expressed that the discussions inspired them to enhance their inclusive efforts. The ideas shared among the audience and panelists enriched their practices as well. This seminar expanded our perspectives and reignited our passion for making research more inclusive.
