Overview
A quick online search for best or better practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and stem research and education yields millions of results. This seems to be at odds with the widespread perception, often voiced by even well-meaning members of the scientific community, that EDI is anathema in scientific circles, that it does not have the sort of natural alignment with the “hard” sciences and that it does with the “softer” sciences nor the humanities wherein faculty members often develop research agendas that quite explicitly generate new knowledge in areas such as decolonization, antiracism, critical disability studies or gender and sexuality. This received wisdom tends to overlook the historic role of the social sciences and humanities in creating and sustaining dominant hierarches and legitimizing a range identity-based exclusions. Citing objectivity, neutrality and empiricism, it also tends to minimize the similar historic role of the sciences (eg. Henrietta Lacks; eugenics; civil engineering and more recently AI) while it pays too little attention to the imperative of mobilizing scientific knowledge to address the persistent and growing problems that produce and reproduce inequality on our planet.
This brief talk poses a few questions. What are the better practices for fostering inclusion in scientific practice? What are the barriers to successfully doing this? What are the benefits of EDI in science? How do we respectfully engage with legitimate concerns about academic integrity and freedom?
Speaker
Barrington Walker, PhD
Professor of History and Vice Provost Equity and Inclusion
McMaster University
Barrington Walker is Professor of History and Vice Provost Equity and Inclusion at McMaster University. He is a scholar of modern Canadian history and a senior leader in EDI who has served in various institutions including the Inter-Institutional Steering Committee for the Scarborough Charter and the Board of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Event details
Speaker: Dr. Barrington Walker
Topic: Reflections upon Best Practices for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Sciences
Date: Thursday, April 25
Time: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Room: ITB A113 A/B
Zoom: Join by Zoom