DEIA and Education Activities at the Summer 244th AAS Meeting

By Alessandra Aloisi, Member of the CSWA

This summer’s 244th AAS meeting in Madison, Wisconsin will be held on June 9-13, 2024 jointly with the Laboratory Astrophysics Division. The meeting is promised to be jam-packed with a lot of great scientific talks, as well as opportunities for networking with colleagues and learning more about the state of our profession, equity, inclusion, education, and outreach.

The meeting showcases strong representation of women speakers in the plenary sessions, including:

• Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh) - Lives of massive galaxies through cosmic times
• Cecilia Garraffo (SAO/CfA) - AI models for astrophysics and atmospheric sciences
• Erika Kohler (NASA Goddard) - Chemical and spectral properties of exoplanetary clouds and atmospheres
• Judith Lean (Lab. for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder) - Variations in the Sun’s radiative output and effects of this variability on Earth 
• Kerstin Perez (Columbia University) - Detection of high-energy cosmic particles as evidence of dark matter interactions
• Noemi Pinilla-Alonso (Florida Space Institute) - Surface compositions of minor bodies to understand formation and evolution of the solar system
• Teznie Pugh (University of Texas Austin) & Aparna Venkatesan (University of San Francisco) - Protection of the dark skies and the space environment

First Timer’s and Opening Receptions are on Sunday, June 9. Astronomy educators and undergraduate student receptions are on Monday, June 10.  We strongly encourage you to participate in other sessions sponsored by the AAS’s committees working with the AAS Board of Trustees to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in Astronomy. These events include the following:

Monday:

• 2 pm – 12:30 pm CT: Exhibition Theater Session AAS Committee on Employment
• 7 pm – 8:30 pm CT: Splinter Session Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities (SGMA) Meet and Greet for LGBTIA Members and Students

Tuesday:

• 1 pm – 1:30 pm CT: Exhibitor Theater Session Q&A with the AAS Education Committee

There are a lot of additional opportunities to learn more about the state of the profession, education, outreach, and diversity activities at this AAS meeting, including:

Sunday:

• 9 am – 5 pm CT: Workshop Designing, Implementing, and Refining Equitable Evaluation Rubrics

Monday:

• 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm CT: iPoster Session Community and Profession

Tuesday:

• 9 am – 10 am CT: iPoster Session Astronomy Education and Multicultural Outreach
• 10 am – 11:30 am CT: Splinter Session Early Career Opportunities to Learn Science Mission Design
• 10 am – 11:30 am CT: Special Session NASA’s SMD Bridge Program: Funding Faculty and Students at Under-resourced Emerging Research Institutions
• 10 am – 11:30 am CT: Meeting-in-a-Meeting Community Based Astronomy around the World: Case Studies and Discussion
• 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT: Splinter Session Academic Portfolio Review and Astronomy: Potential Impacts to the Future of Astronomy and STEM Education
• 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT: Oral Session Outreach and Education
• 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT: Meeting-in-a-Meeting Starting Inward: DEIA’s Essential Role in Healthy Community Models of Astronomy

Wednesday:

• 10 am – 11:30 am CT: Special Session Towards Equity in the Classroom: Implementing Progressive Pedagogical Practices
• 10 am – 10:30 am CT: Exhibitor Theater Presentation Broadening Participation at the National Science Foundation
• 12:30 pm – 1 pm CT: Exhibitor Theater Presentation Life in Hawai’i: Outreach, Education, and the Community Engagement Efforts of the Maunakea Observatories
• 2 pm – 3:30 pm CT: Meeting-in-a-Meeting Designing Community Engagement Programs from a Mutuality Worldview

The full block schedule can be found here. And please feel free to stop by and say hi in-person if you attend one of our events, or tag and tweet us.

DEIA&B Sessions & Events at AAS New Orleans

By Karly Pitman, CSWA Chairperson

Block schedule

The 243rd AAS meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana will be held on Jan. 7-11, 2024 jointly with the High Energy Astrophysics and Historical Astronomy Divisions of AAS. Congratulations to the organizers for putting together a great program and strong representation of women in the slate of plenaries!  

Please come by to visit with members of the CSWA at the following locations:

• Sun. 01/07, AAS Grad School & REU Fair
  5:30-7:00 p.m. Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Great Hall
  Booth #04
• Exhibit hall (all week)
  AAS Inclusion Committees, Booth #825

This year’s women and gender minorities in astronomy networking event will be hosted by 1400degrees.org on Mon. Jan. 8 from 6:30 - 9 p.m. CT — RSVP here.

Other networking events are being hosted by 

• SGMA
  SGMA Meet & Greet for LGBTIA Members and Students
  Mon. Jan. 8 from 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. CT
  convention center room 206 
• CSMA
  CSMA Meet & Greet
  Wed. Jan. 10 from 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. CT
  offsite restaurant

CSWA would like to draw your attention to several sessions in the program that focus on community building and best practices for diversity in astronomy, as well as improving diversity hiring and mentoring.

Weekend

• Designing Community Engagement from a Mutuality Worldview
  Date: Saturday, January 6, 2024 | 1:00 PM CT - 5:00 PM CT
  Room: 212
• Mentoring Methods for Socially Conscious Astronomers
  Date: Saturday, January 6, 2024 | 2:00 PM CT - 5:00 PM CT
  Room: 218
• Increasing student learning and inclusion in your classroom: Strategies from the Faculty Teaching Institute
  Date: Sunday, January 7, 2024 | 9:00 AM CT - 4:00 PM CT
  Room: 218

Mon. Jan. 8

• Drop the Mask: Navigating Imposter Phenomenon as a BIPOC Individual in STEM
  10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. CT
  Session 115 - room 209
• Disability Justice, WGAD, and You
  11:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. CT
  Exhibitor Theater, Exhibit Hall B-1/B-2
• Astronomy for a Better World
  2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. CT
  Session 144 - room 214
• Empowering Minorities and Supporting Diversity
  5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. CT
  Session 172 - iPoster Hall B-1/B-2
• 1400 Degrees community-building and networking reception
  7 - 9 p.m. CST
  Location: Annunciation Restaurant, 1016 Annunciation St.

Tue. Jan. 9

• AAS CSMA Presents: Astronomy’s Poverty Problem
  10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. CT
  Session 150 - room 237
• NA-ROAD and The Women and Girls in Astronomy Program (WGAP)
  11:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. CT
  Exhibitor Theater, Exhibit Hall B-1/B-2
• Reimagining the Astronomy PhD for the 21st Century
  2:00 PM CT - 3:30 PM CT
  Room: 212

Wed. Jan. 10

• The Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy Presents: Effective Partnerships with HBCUs in Astronomy
  10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. CT
  Session 320 - room 222

Exhibit hall, all week

AAS Rainbow Village, hosted by CSMA, #BlackinAstro, VanguardSTEM, and LUMA.

Read more at

The Rainbow Village at AAS: Junellie Gonzalez Quiles and the League of Underrepresented Minoritized Astronomers

DEIA and Education Activities at the 240th AAS Meeting

By Nicolle Zellner, Karly Pitman, Rolf Danner, Karen Knierman, Sarah Tuttle, Laura Lopez, and Nicole Cabrera Salazar

See you in Pasadena!

Below is the list of sessions sponsored by the AAS’s Inclusion Committees, and we encourage you to attend and participate when you can. These committees were established to work with the AAS Board of Trustees to promote equity of opportunity for and enhance participation of underrepresented groups in our field, including women, minorities, sexual orientation and gender minorities, and disabled astronomers. Each of our committees and events are open to all who are interested in learning more or helping with these goals.

CSWA, CSMA, and SGMA events at AAS

Monday, 5:30 - 7 p.m. PT: Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) 

CSWA Activities in the Context of the Astro2020 Decadal

Monday, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. PT: Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA) Town Hall: After the 2020 World-Wide Protests: Progress and Failures of Implementing Substantial Change in Astronomy

Monday, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. PT: Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA)  

CSMA Meet and Greet

Wednesday, 7 - 8:30 p.m. PT: Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities in Astronomy (SGMA) Meet and Greet, 

SGMA Meet and Greet for LGBTIA Members and Students

Additionally, a few of us will be holding “office hours” at the AAS Booth in the Exhibit Hall, so please stop by for a chat! CSWA, Monday 9-10 a.m. PT WGAD, Monday 9-10 a.m. PT SGMA, Tuesday 9-10 a.m. PT

Education, outreach, and diversity opportunities

Monday, 10 - 11:30 am PT:  Diversification in Astronomy & Astrophysics at NASA GSFC

Monday, 2 - 3:30 pm PT: Systemic Change for Equity in Astronomy Graduate Education: A Primer
Tuesday, 10 - 11:30 am PT: Public Engagement and Education Research
Tuesday, 1-1:30 pm PT: Q&A with the AAS Education Committee
Tuesday, 5:30 - 6:30 pm PT: Education Programs, Resources, and Research iPoster
Wednesday, 10 - 11:30 am PT: College Education and Outreach Programs

An exhibitor theater presentation, “Life in Hawai’i: Outreach, Education, and the Community Engagement Efforts of the Maunakea Observatories” will be presented on Tuesday, from 3 - 3:30 pm and on Wednesday from 12:30 - 1 pm PT. The full block schedule can be found here. And if you attend one of our events, feel free to say hi in-person or tag and tweet us! 

Reach out if you have any questions

Nicolle Zellner and Karly Pitman (CSWA, @AAS_Women, CSWA on Facebook)
Rolf Danner (SGMA)

Karen Knierman and Sarah Tuttle (WGAD, @AAS_WGAD)
Laura Lopez and Nicole Cabrera Salazar (CSMA, @AAS_CSMA, CSMA on Facebook, AstronomyinColor Blog) 

IDEA Actions for Our Science Communities

By Nicolle Zellner and Karly Pitman, CSWA co-Chairs

In the past few years, there has been a noticeable shift in how organizations, institutions, and professional societies (among others) are integrating inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA), justice, and/or belonging into their daily practices. The Women in Astronomy blog has published numerous posts on this topic while highlighting IDEA advocates and allies. In a recent post, Joan Schmelz, director of the Science and Technology Institute and the NASA Postdoctoral Program at Universities Space Research Association, wrote about her approach for intentionally infusing IDEA culture throughout Astronomy.

There are plenty of resources out there and multiple ways to become educated about best practices, lessons learned, and practical applications. This week, Advancing IDEA in Planetary Science is taking place. The goal of this virtual conference is to “ensure that the planetary science community can take giant leaps in advancing IDEA principles in the workforce over the next decade.” The conference is free and registration is open. Whether a planetary scientist or not, the talks and workshops are sure to be engaging, informative, and inspiring. There will also be two working sessions (Apr. 28 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. CDT and Apr. 29 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. CDT) to develop detailed and tangible recommendations for the community.

NASA’s DEIA Strategic Plan (2022-2026) includes multiple key performance goals. For example, one aims to ensure that recruitment plans focus on underrepresented individuals and members of underserved communities and individuals with disabilities. Others aim to build a diverse future science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce by engaging students in authentic learning experiences; implement a continuous pay equity assessment process; and develop and implement automated, analytic products centered around measuring demographic representation and trends (among others). NASA’s Equity Action Plan will focus on increasing integration and utilization of contractors and businesses from underserved communities; enhancing grants and cooperative agreements to advance opportunities, access, and representation for underserved communities; leveraging Earth Science and socioeconomic data to help mitigate environmental challenges in underserved communities; and advancing external civil rights compliance. The National Science Foundation has also recently updated its Strategic Plan (NSF 2022-2026) and diversity is mentioned in several places, drawing from the National Science Board's Vision 2030 recommendations. While many diversity working groups and institutions don't necessarily have the budgets to execute to the scale of the funding agencies, actions at the federal level should serve to inspire individuals and institutions that are funded by NASA in developing their IDEA goals.

The American Astronomical Society itself has also infused IDEA into its own Strategic Plan (2021-2026), with the goal of implementing recommendations made by recent IDEA task forces and consortia. Members of its inclusion committees, CSWA, SGMA, WGAD, and CSMA, meet regularly and collect and publish resources to help advance careers of AAS members in general.

But perhaps the biggest sea change in encouraging the implementation of IDEA practices occurred when the National Academies required that both the Astrophysics and Planetary Science and Astrobiology decadal surveys include a study of the state of the profession. The Astro2020 decadal report, Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s, urges federal agencies to ensure that their scientific integrity policies address harassment and discrimination by individuals as forms of scientific misconduct. The report also encourages federal funding agencies to establish a consistent format and policy for regularly collecting, evaluating, and publicly reporting demographic data and indicators and then consider using that information in the evaluation of funding awards (e.g.,  individual investigators, project and mission teams, third-party organizations that manage facilities). In a similar vein the just-released Planetary Science and Astrobiology (PS&AB) Decadal Survey, Origins, Worlds, and Life, also recommends collecting data concerning workplace climate, as well as data on the size, identity, and demographics of the PS&AB community; broadening opportunities to advance the state of the profession; and recognizing the need for an inclusive and inviting community free of hostility and harassment. That the decadal reports of both of these closely related scientific communities make similar recommendations means that the importance of a diverse and healthy workforce is finally being acknowledged. Now it’s up to us - members of these communities - to capitalize on this momentum and take action to bring these recommendations to life.

Here are some ways that you can take action in the short term: 

• Participate in upcoming events at the 240th AAS meeting in Pasadena, CA

• CSWA splinter session, June 13, 5:30 - 7 pm PT

• Other sessions TBD, so check the schedule when it’s published

• Volunteer to be a part of the AAS inclusion committees

• CSWA, SGMA, CSMA, WGAD

• Be a mentor on AAS’s new mentoring platform, Mentoring365

Resources:

WGAD, AAS Working Group on Accessibility and Disability 

SGMA, AAS Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities in Astronomy 

CSMA, AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy

CSWA, AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the American Geophysical Union

International Astronomical Union, Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion

Statement by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Perspectives of Early Career Astronomers Through the Lenses of Diversity, Work-Life Balance, and Mentoring

Perspectives of Early Career Astronomers Through the Lenses of Diversity, Work-Life Balance, and Mentoring: A recap of the AAS238 CSWA Splinter Session

By Jessica Mink, Amber Stuver, and Heather Flewelling

The 2021 documentary, Picture a Scientist, exposed the harassment and discrimination that women of all career levels experience in STEM. One part of the Strategic Plan of the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) is to collaborate with the other inclusion and diversity advocacy groups within the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to address gender-based discrimination, which concerns all of us. Leakage from the career progression pipeline has been a major concern for all of us, so we thought that a public discussion of obstacles and strategies for early career astronomers would be a good initial topic.

For this splinter session, we included the following panelists:

SGMA: Adam L.W.Harvey - graduate student                                                         

CSWA: MelindaSoares-Furtado - postdoc                                                              

WGAD: JackieMonkiewicz - postdoc                                                                         

DPS PCCS: Serina Diniega - scientist

During the splinter session, we asked the panelists a series of questions and have summarized the key points of the discussion as bulleted points below.

How can diverse categories of astronomers be supported in their education to complete their degrees?

• Get help finding co-mentors who are more capable of advising you along whatever axes are relevant
• Find people like yourself and support each other.  Make this easy. Community is very important, but often lacking.
• Support them! Find other people who are closer to their status.
• Careers shouldn't be in the hands of only one close advisor.
• Time to graduation should be allowed to grow without penalty.
• Students who need to take off time shouldn't be penalized.
• Academic culture is a problem. There are a lot of obstacles and challenges that don’t need to be there. Bring actionable discussion on how people should act           

What advice do you have for a mentor who is working with astronomers who identify along a different axis than they do?  What should they know that many don’t seem to have thought about? What qualities of a mentor make them effective?

• Good mentors provide affirmation. Unsatisfactory mentoring can lead to a toxic relationship.
• If you are a mentor, use Google to find failure modes of mentoring marginalized groups, to help you learn how to be a better mentor
• Advisors often keep moving the goalposts. Set them, and leave them there. Grad school does not work like earlier schooling, but more like the work world. As such, you can do your best and it may not be not good enough
• There’s a myth of innate talent: People have it or never will. You're cut out or not cut out. But graduate school is not a priesthood. Once you're in, you’re all wheat, not chaff.
• It's too easy for advisors to drop the ball. Things all too often fall through if they only affect the student., because the academic system does not necessarily reward work which does not directly contribute to an advisor’s academic record
• It is on you as a mentor to figure it out, don’t put it on the student

Have you ever felt unsafe/threatened at any point in your career?  How can the astronomy community come together to prevent things like this from happening to others?

• Support your students to keep them out of bad situations or get them out so that they don’t have to skip activities if they've been harassed at them.
• It’s hard to call out bad behavior, but it hurts scientists' careers if they avoid conferences or other work related events because they don’t feel safe
• Coming out as non-binary led to social isolation, which affected performance. There’s a need to be discussed and addressed. 
• Conferences / workplaces / research groups need  a code of conduct, reporting mechanisms, enforcement of the code of conduct, and consequences need to be imposed on those who don’t follow it. 
• Codes of conduct with enforcement and consequences can come from funding agencies. That’s where the power is.
• Help people who’ve been harmed to succeed in their career

Is there anything that you feel that you cannot do or say that your peers can for fear that it will affect your career? How have you dealt with it?

• One can speak before they think, though age brings carefulness. It's hard to talk about discrimination against yourself, but easier about discrimination against others.
• It’s hard to talk about having a nontraditional background or being a mother. I tried to blend in like everyone else as a scientist so that I was taken seriously.
• Outreach is not always respected as a professional activity.
• I’ve been vocal about issues on campus, but not comfortable about pushing for change in my own situation, so I gave up.
• Being marked as an activist can be near-fatal to a career. When you do anything other than science, you're seen as distracted.

Have you felt that having a family conflicted with your career advancement?  What are/were your concerns? What changes can be made to support astronomers with families?

• Strengths come with being a parent in academia, and stubbornness of purpose. Two kids looking up at you can make you feel appreciated.
• Banding together helps. Some campuses are better than others. 43% of women leave full-time STEM employment after their first child and 23% of men.  An unpublished study finds that this may be as high for women as 70% in the physical sciences. See links to other articles below.
• “You can have it all” is not true. Getting a degree, having a disability, having kids - are all full-time jobs.

Question from the panel attendees: What  red flags should we look for?

• Conferences and journals need to be accessible for neuroatypical individuals. WGAD has several documents  that provide advice on how to do this..
• 80-100 working hours/week for graduate students is absurd, but there are people who believe it. Ask anyone you want to work with whether they believe it. Good: it's awful; maybe work with them. Bad: they know that they can't say they agree, so they squirm uncomfortably; consider whether you want to commit to that institution.
• How do people talk about other students? Seeing the best in others is not a fault.
• Red Flags for people: personal issues, such as mismatched attitude toward work, and personal issues within work groups as well.
• Red flags for institutions: If there are no written policies, there are expectations that can vary for any reason. They also may not have thought about how their institution (or department) works.

Acronym meanings with resource links from above:

CSWA:   Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy
CSMA:   Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy
SGMA:  Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities in Astronomy
WGAD: Working Group on Accessibility and Disability
PCCS:    DPS Professional Culture & Climate Subcommittee

Additional Useful Links:

Myth of the Missing Mothers (2009) 
Science and gender: Scientists must work harder on equality (2015)
Picture a Scientist, a free PBS/Nova documentary (2021)

Recap: Virtual CSWA Meet and Greet @ the 236th AAS Meeting

Drawing on community input from a brief survey, our panel focused on addressing the special challenges our community faces, especially in the era of social distancing and social unrest. Recognizing that women can identify along multiple axes, the CSWA invited representatives from the AAS diversity committee to participate on this panel. Panelists were Dr. Jackie Monkiewicz (Working Group on Accessibility and Disability, WGAD), Dra. Nicole Cabrera Salazar (Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy, CSMA), and Dr. Rolf Danner (Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities on Astronomy, SGMA). Dr. Stella Kafka (CSWA) moderated.

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.

Cross-post: AAS 233 events from the CSMA Newsletter

The winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society will take place Sunday January 6 through Thursday January 10 in Seattle, WA. This cross-post contains events and sessions featured in the latest CSMA Newsletter that may be of interest to those supporting astronomers of color and social justice topics. We have supplemented the listing with additional events featuring the other AAS diversity committees.