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T65. Intention Is Not Enough: Real-life Power Imbalances in the History of Geosciences and Possible Futurities
T65. Intention Is Not Enough: Real-life Power Imbalances in the History of Geosciences and Possible Futurities
About
About
Session T65. Intention Is Not Enough: Real-life Power Imbalances in the History of Geosciences and Possible Futurities, will make space to unpack, from multiple perspectives, the power dynamics that are an inevitable part of collaborations within geoscience research, education, and workplace contexts.
This session will formally take place during the Geological Society of America (GSA) 2024 Annual Meeting, during the week of September 22-25 in Anaheim, California, USA in Orange County.
There are tentative virtual pre-conference and post-workshop activities open for everyone, including those who are not attending GSA-- learn more about our June 6 event and stay tuned for more!
Land Acknowledgement
Land Acknowledgement
The GSA 2024 Annual Meeting will take place on the Traditional Homelands of The Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation and the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation.
Meet the Co-Conveners
Meet the Co-Conveners
We will host a virtual meet-the-conveners Zoom session on Thursday, June 6 from 12-2 pm Pacific. Feel free to drop by any time, no need to stay for the whole time. It will be fairly casual!
Zoom link: https://uci.zoom.us/j/97267018218
Whether or not you end up submitting to our session, anyone who comes to this meeting will be included in a raffle for a bracelet made by Patricia John (Navajo) who sells her artwork in Salt River Canyon, AZ (see picture below). :D
Session Description
Session Description
Collaboration in geoscience is meant to bring multiple perspectives together, but not enough work reflects on the impacts of power dynamics among people. Though many researchers intend to overcome power dynamics in their collaborations, the actual impacts of these power dynamics are less documented. Oftentimes, academic structures do not provide time or space for meaningfully documenting these experiences. Additionally, sharing these experiences is difficult when one’s position and power in a collaboration is fluid and context-dependent (e.g., a graduate student working with a disadvantaged community, or a non-tenured faculty member PI of an international grant). Despite these difficulties, we must contend with historical and ongoing disengagement in order to intervene to produce a future where the impacts of power dynamics are talked about as much as the intent to disrupt them.
We invite personal insights on what it means to wield or not wield power as collaborative endeavors develop. Collaborative endeavors include (but are not limited to) traditional research teams, community/community-based research, affinity group membership, grassroots organizing, and participation in inclusive programming (e.g., institutional and professional society initiatives). Insights may take the form of: reflections on failures as well as successes; counter-narratives; personal perspectives; autoethnographies; and traditional research approaches. We ask that a significant portion of each presentation be dedicated to the process and impacts of decision-making rather than the decisions themselves. We encourage submissions from contributors from all career stages, with particular emphasis on students and early career researchers.
Keywords: ethics, values, history, accountability, power structures, institutions, collaboration, team science, meta science, counter-narratives
This session is endorsed by several GSA divisions. Check out their community pages on the GSA website and other social media:
How do I submit a GSA abstract?
How do I submit a GSA abstract?
There are almost 200 sessions to submit your abstract to this year, so we are grateful that you are considering our session! The deadline to submit is Tuesday June 18, 2024 (11:59 PM Pacific Time, see different timezones).
Submit your abstract on the GSA Connects 2024 Portal.
Access through direct link: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2024AM/top/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=56700
Access by going through the portal:
Log in
Click on "Topical Sessions". Please be patient, as the page needs time to load.
The sessions are in numerical order by the digits following the letter T. Scroll down to find "T65. Intention Is Not Enough: Real-life Power Imbalances in the History of Geosciences and Possible Futurities". Click on the session name.
The abstract submission page will load. You will complete the steps for agreement to uphold GSA code of ethics, add in the abstract title, author and other information, add the abstract text, pay the submission fee, and then finally, confirm and submit.
Abstract Submission Fee Reimbursement Opportunity!
Abstract Submission Fee Reimbursement Opportunity!
We (the session conveners) will select up to 12 presenters who will be eligible for reimbursement of their abstract submission fee. All abstracts submitted to our session will be considered for this reimbursement. Priority will be given to presenters who are current undergraduate students, current graduate students, or early career researchers/professionals.
The reimbursement is sponsored by the Geosciences ASCEND program (Geosciences Associated Societies Committed to Embracing and Normalizing Diversity). Geosciences ASCEND's objectives are to:
advance and accelerate cultural change in geosciences
broaden participation of diverse identities in geoscience
create a more inclusive discipline in which all people may participate and contribute.
Abstracts will be scored based on this rubric. If you are selected, you will be contacted by Geosciences ASCEND. Please reach out to darryl.reano@asu.edu with any questions!
If I'm a student, how can I get funding to attend the conference?
If I'm a student, how can I get funding to attend the conference?
Scientific Division Travel Grants for GSA Connects 2024
These travel grants are typically open to student members of these GSA divisions who are presenting an abstract (oral or poster):
GSA Geoscience Education Division
GSA Geology and Health Division
GSA Geoarchaeology Division**
GSA History and Philosophy of Geology Division**
**does not require applicants to be members of the division
Geographic Section Grants for GSA Connects 2024
These travel grants are open to student members of these GSA regional sections (one free membership to a regional section is included with general GSA membership). Students must present an abstract (oral or poster) to be considered. Typically, every student who meets these criteria gets awarded a little bit of money, so it's always worth it to apply!
GSA Cordilleran Section
GSA Northeastern Section
GSA South-Central Section
GSA North-Central Section
GSA Rocky Mountain Section
GSA Southeastern Section
Research Awards
GSA Geology and Society Division
Other Funding Opportunities
On to the Future Mentorship Program
Become a mentor for On to the Future attendees and receive travel support from GSA.
GSA is also looking for dedicated mentors from a variety of career stages and backgrounds to serve as On To the Future mentors at Connects 2024 in Anaheim! Effective mentoring is a critical component of the OTF experience. In recognition of this, mentors will receive travel support for their service.
More info here.
Applications can be found here and are due May 31st.
Volunteer for at least 10 hours, and GSA will cover your meeting registration fees!
Registration for the Volunteer Program at GSA Connects 2024 opens in late June 2024.
We have limited funds from GeoASCEND to reimburse abstract submission fees for students submitting abstracts to our session! More details are available in the "Abstract Reimbursement" section of our website.
Ask your advisor!
We have some email templates that we've written out in this Google Doc for starting the conversation with your advisor about conference funding. The document also includes a sample budget for conference travel so that you can get an idea of what you can be reimbursed for when attending a conference.
My name is Thi (pronounced like the letter, "T"). During my PhD, I studied the geochemistry of a submarine Hawaiian volcano, Kamaʻehuakanaloa, and in my MS, I focused on a different volcanic island system off the coast of Chile. I am currently a postdoctoral scholar at UC Irvine, incorporating my scientific expertise into various community-based projects around Orange County to address climate justice impacts. You could say that my formal geoscience journey has taken me from the global to the local.
I've also been an active leader in Unpacking Diversity (2018-2021) and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Geosciences (2021 to present). Though I have participated in international, multi-institutional research efforts, led small grassroots teams, I am careful not to conflate the intention of collaboration with the actual experience of collaboration for all involved members. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to transform the meaning of collaboration, and strategies to pursue safe and meaningful in-person collaborations are rarely emphasized.
In this session, I will contribute an abstract about strategies I've used to address gaps in engagement across disciplinary boundaries in team teaching, when delivering interdisciplinary curricula in racially diverse learning settings. I will present lessons learned from teaching and collaborating via in-person, hybrid/dual, and virtual setups.
At GSA, you will likely find me with an N95 respirator and with a CO2 monitor nearby. Come say hi :)
Karen Van-Thu Pham (she/her)
Karen Van-Thu Pham (she/her)
Hi! I'm a Geosciences PhD candidate (about to start my 5th year in the fall!) at Penn State University. My research explores past interactions between plants, people, and other components of the ecosystem. During my PhD, I began to work with local communities in Southwest Madagascar; these collaborations have immensely enriched my grad school experience and shaped my scientific journey and identity.
I have been very fortunate to engage in beautiful collaborations thus far in my career; however, I also recognize that collaborations can quickly and unintentionally become exploitative when power dynamics are involved (and they are always involved!). I'm really excited to help moderate this space at GSA 2024 where we can candidly share our failures and our worries together.
My favorite Malagasy proverb (at the moment) is: "Tsihy be lambanana ny ambanilanitra", which roughly translates to "All who live under the same sky are woven into one great mat." To me, this proverb truly captures the essence of our session! I plan to contribute an abstract to this session where I explore what it means to be a scientist working with communities and the need for researchers to facilitate positive change in the communities that they engage with.
Growing in parallel with my academic journey, a large part of my time in the past year or so has been consumed with developing my identity as a dancer. I do freestyle hip hop, and I'm currently exploring House. Feel free to talk to me about dance if you catch me at GSA!!
Darryl Reano (He/They; Darryl.Reano@asu.edu)
Darryl Reano (He/They; Darryl.Reano@asu.edu)
Hi Everyone!
My name is Darryl Reano and I'm a geologist and geoscience educator from Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. I am also an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. My research is focused on supporting the development of inclusive educational environments using Indigenous research frameworks (Reano & Hasara, 2023). Most recently, my work has focused on Indigenizing geologic field experiences (Reano & Keeto, 2023).
As part of my involvement in the Indigenous DataSET Fellowship, I have been able to align my work with the CARE Principles (Carroll et al., 2020) and I hope to spread awareness and respect for Indigenous communities around the world. Currently, I serve as an Indigenous Evaluator on large-scale projects that involve engagement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Both of these experiences have shown me that collaboration is not easy and requires deep levels of trust that is hard-earned and continually incomplete. However, this need for "growing together" is what motivates me to continue this work despite all of these challenges.
My contribution to this session will likely relate to the work I have done in collaboration with a graduate student, Talia Saeid, that focused on developing curricula that integrates Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCCEE) Practices within an Astrobiology curriculum.
At GSA this year, You will probably find me at one of the Diversity Events (Itinerary will be linked soon) or in one of the Geoscience Education themed sessions. I kind of have a mean face, but I'm usually happy to meet new people so feel free to stop me and say hi!
Affinity Groups Information
Affinity Groups Information
This session's conveners and presenters include leaders from various affinity groups. These include:
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Geosciences (AAPIiG)
Indigenous Geoscience Community (IGC)
GeoASCEND
LGBTQ+ Geologists and Geoscientists (AGQ)
Contact
Contact
Please get in touch with us if you have any questions or comments by submitting to the Google Form. We will get back to you as soon as we can!
You can also reach out to any of the co-conveners via email:
Thi Truong (tbtruon1@uci.edu)
Karen Pham (kvp22@psu.edu)
Darryl Reano (Darryl.Reano@asu.edu)
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