There has never been a more important time for those who serve actively marginalized communities to align and lift each other up around both our challenges and our successes. Now is the time to name the systems that keep people oppressed and collaboratively interrogate, disrupt, dismantle, and build anew.
The truth about science, politics, education, technology, art, activism, and organizing is that they are all part of one intersecting fight and we must support each other through it. There are many existing efforts that center the healing, wellbeing, access, justice, and rights of the people and those who are doing this work understand just how deep the intersections run.
The Inclusive SciComm Symposium (ISCS), in collaboration with Daniel Aguirre from Pueblo, seeks to be in solidarity and community with those who are on the ground floor of advancing and realizing equity. We acknowledge that currently and historically, there are those within scientific institutions who advocate for the idea that science should remain neutral in the face of injustice. To that we proudly say, NO. Instead, with the support of Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation, we are leaning in and dedicating intentional time and energy to convene a network of community engagement practitioners to explore decolonizing science communication, dismantling oppressive/exclusionary institutional structures, and building and supporting equitable relationships and collaborations. This initiative aims to support community-developed knowledge, alignment, and action.
Read more about the ISCS21 Community Cohort members here.
The Inclusive SciComm Community Cohort initiative aims to:
- Sincerely recognize and shine a spotlight on the contributions of individuals and organizations that work within and as part of communities,
- Provide an opportunity for community engagement practitioners to connect with each other and with the growing Inclusive SciComm movement,
- Highlight the knowledge, strategies, and lessons of community engagement practitioners, activists, and organizers that can help science communicators shift their approaches with justice in mind.
We are trying something different. Therefore, we will be flexible enough in our planning to allow this endeavor to take whatever shape it needs. Community Cohort members receive:
Free Registration
Registration fees will be waived for Community Cohort members, providing full access to the symposium.
Honorarium
Cohort members are eligible to receive a $200 honorarium for contributing to the development of the cohort experience and/or developing a Symposium session, such as a networking session for Cohort members, a roundtable discussion about how your experiences serving communities can inform the inclusive scicomm movement, or another session for the broader Symposium audience. If you wish to co-organize the Community Cohort experience and receive the honorarium, you will need to participate in three meetings with the Cohort Catalyst, Daniel Aguirre, between September 20 and October 13, 2021.
Exhibit Booths
A limited number of exhibit booths will be available for community cohort members.
As a member of the Community Cohort, we invite you to:
- Share the lived, professional, and educational experiences that shaped you, and those of the people you serve and partner with.
- Share and explore strategies for mobilizing on the ground.
- Share the tools, connections, experts, and resources that you need and/or envision to help advance your work and career.
- Help explore and shape a movement for robust intersectional alignment among educators, journalists, students, researchers, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) practitioners, science communicators, and those who aspire to be in coalition.