In support of Black Lives Matter, the Meet and Greet started with a moment of silence to reflect on the episodes of social injustice that were occurring at the time of the meeting (early June 2020). Subsequently, posts that highlight the work of Black astronomers were (and will continue to be) cross-posted on the CSWA blog page.
The panel discussions centered around three topics: work-life balance, supporting each other, and making on-line meetings inclusive. What follows are comments from the participants on the panel, including the moderator. A link to the CSWA Resources page is included at the end.
Work-life balance- For the people in positions of power, including supervisors and advisors of post-docs and graduate students, think about what you can do to ensure that the people you have power over have enough space to process what’s going on around them and their own individual home/family situation and/or disabilities. In the midst of the pandemic, it can be difficult for people to focus on tasks that need to be completed. As a supervisor/advisor, think about how you can “pull your weight” to give time, space, and funding to those who need it, to ensure they are going to be okay. Priority should be given to individual’s mental stability and health and sense of security, and not productivity and meeting expectations. We live in unusually challenging times.
- The current state of social unrest, in addition to the global pandemic, can make it difficult for people to concentrate. This is especially true for those who are directly impacted by what’s happening in America right now. Graduate students and international students: You are in precarious positions, so don’t be too hard on yourselves. It’s okay to give yourself some care and some space.
- People of privilege in power can use their positions to influence change, to make the world a little better for the people who work for them. Ensure funding for their students and a future for their postdocs. People in positions of power can initiate conversations with their employees, to develop a sense of community. The alternative to not talking can be worse than coming out initially with the wrong word.
- We need to support each other as individuals and communities. Check in with your friends to let them know you’re thinking about them. If they respond in a communicative way and indicate they need support, your job is to sit there and listen and make appreciate noises – even if you like to give advice!
- Remind your friends in need that they should practice self-care.
- Given the opportunity, all individuals will heal and grow and will live up to their full potential. We all need different levels of support at time, and even if we don’t realize it, we typically know what we need. Ask questions but also recognize we all have access to different levels of privilege. This will hopefully lead to an alleviation of immediate stress. It’s okay to be angry, as long as that anger is directed in a way that can make positive change. Use your privilege and position and any anger you may have to advocate in support of people.
- Academia’s “lone genius” model can take away the element of humanity within our work and community. As a result, we are unwittingly creating our own individual isolation - we may not have a good sense of what is happening in our own departments and we may be unaware of the well-being of our colleagues. That needs to change. Ideally we should strive to create a community, with collective values, that cherishes every member and in which everyone takes care of each other. We should also incorporate aspects of humanity in our personal interactions, e.g., by leading with vulnerability to build trust.
- Advertise and make available options for closed captions.
- Pair on-line meetings with personal calls or other outreach, especially if you are leading the meeting. This is a good way to reach the introverts and the people who prefer more time to process requests for information.
- Be aware of power dynamics in the virtual room. This power differential can reflect different status in career, power, race, gender, disability, sexuality, or other interconnecting factors. For example, students may not speak up if surrounded by professors. Reducing or mitigating the effects of any power dynamic is extremely important and should result in interactions that are equitable. One way to do this is to flip the power hierarchy from vertical (e.g., professor at the top, student at the bottom) to horizontal and then to collectively agree to the standards of the discussion.
- For the people in power: Acknowledge that you are in a position of power (whether you like it or not!) and understand that you have the obligation to bring in other people.
- Use your power in a constructive way, e.g., to recognize everyone in the conversation or to make sure no one person (or group) dominates the conversation.
- Leverage your power to recommend others, e.g., who are more suitable for speaking engagements.
- Give up the comforts that power affords you in your privileged position, e.g., so that there can be equitable results. Be prepared to deal with (uncomfortable) push-back.
- Take care of the community around you.
- The role of the moderator is key. The best meetings are where everyone gets a chance to say what they needed to say.
- Recognizing that there are times when consensus has to be broken, the best decisions are when you have full consensus (i.e. everyone has to agree before moving forward). Consensus has been shown to be very important for giving voices to minoritized groups.
- There should be multiple ways of communicating. Different avenues of communication (e.g. verbal, chat) can make the meeting more accessible, especially for those who may not be comfortable (or are unable) to speak. Asynchronous and synchronous participation can maximize the benefits of virtual meetings.
- The ideal world we are all striving for is one in which we can just all be people, with our different experiences acknowledged. We have to be willing to listen to people and to acknowledge inequities and, to make the world equitable, a level playing field is required.
- The AAS is doing its best to acknowledge issues of inequity and to improve our community. Though we can now identify and freely discuss many of these issues, much more work needs to be done.
- We have a model in academia that relies on free labor from marginalized people to make changes to problems that marginalized people did not start. Diversity committees are largely staffed by marginalized people who are already overburdened with the emotional labor of shepherding the next generation of marginalized scientists and also doing the work of battling microaggressions and stereotype threat in their workplaces every day while also trying to do their science. These committees are not accomplishing a lot because the members of the committee are not experts in solving cultural problems, they are scientists. They are additionally doing this work as volunteers. If we want to see change in this community, then we need to invest time, energy, and money into actually making these changes happen. And we have to listen to the marginalized members of our community because they have been saying – for a very long time – what needs to happen.
The CSWA has been collecting resources that provide advice or information on many topics related to promoting and advancing the careers of women in Astronomy. You can find them here
For information on how to make conferences more inclusive, read the recommendations that resulted from the Inclusive Astronomy 2 meeting in 2019. See also the list of resources created and compiled by WGAD.
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