As Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) scholars in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), we often find ourselves alone in academic spaces. Whether at field stations, conference, departmental event, or even within our own lab groups, we don't see our cultures and racial identities represented within our cohorts and mentors.
In 2020, two inspiring pieces were published in Nature Ecology and Evolution (Halsey et al., 2020; Tseng et al., 2020) that addressed this issue. These pieces provided resilience strategies for BIPOC scholars working under inequitable frameworks in EEB. We felt that, to compliment and build upon these pieces, we needed to create a call to action for leaders in the EEB academy - i.e., those who wield systemic power, and are best-able and morally obligated to elevate our voices.
Our piece was just accepted in Ecology Letters and we hope that it will inspire some important discussions about what each of us is doing to promote the recruitment, representation, and ultimately, racial equity of EEB scholars.
Links:
1. Halsey, S. J., Strickland, L. R., Scott-Richardson, M., Perrin-Stowe, T., & Massenburg, L. (2020). Elevate, don’t assimilate, to revolutionize the experience of scientists who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4(10), 1291-1293. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01297-9)
2. Tseng, M., El-Sabaawi, R. W., Kantar, M. B., Pantel, J. H., Srivastava, D. S., & Ware, J. L. (2020). Strategies and support for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in ecology and evolutionary biology. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4(10), 1288-1290. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1252-0)