Social Justice
Social justice is key
Access to opportunities in the form of education is not evenly distributed. And once in academia, individual opportunities to learn, develop, and achieve professional growth are not fairly spread out because of systemically rooted systems of oppression. This is why my work (and life) always uses a lens of social justice. While the problems are global and systemic, enhancing opportunities for folks facing the burden of social injustice can be both big and small.
Building community
Supporting each other directly and increasing visibility of people who experience social injustice as part of my role leading diversity and social justice for the scientific staff association of ETH (AVETH) in collaborations with ETH Diversity.
Building community and advocating for social change stems from my personal experiences and inner drive as a queer person, but it is sustained by a deep sense of responsibility to work towards leveling the playing field so everyone has the best chance to realize their potential.
If you would like to learn more about social justice and how you can you make a difference in your community, please check out the self- or community-guided reading list I have put together below.
Social and ecological justice
A snippet of media coverage from our transdisciplinary project within Arvae exploring how hierarchies in our food system stem from dualistic thinking that creates a logic for domination of our ecosystems and people. Here, we explored the position of humans in food systems growing edible fungi using human-derived waste from Arosa, Switzerland. Learn more here.
Social Justice Reading List
This reading list was the outcome of a grass-roots initiative I led at ETH to build community and the next generation of social justice practioners. It is designed for all levels of knowledge and is paced for monthly learning sessions over the course of a year. For access to certain texts, you can e-mail me directly (manthony5955[at]gmail{dot}com.
The mostly reading but also watching/listening list
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Unit 1: | A critical analysis of diversity | the point of this unit is to guide diversity work which does not accidentally reinforce systems of oppression or guide social justice actions into ineffective directions.
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Mini-unit on Sarah Ahmed (https://www.saranahmed.com/)
February Meeting:
On Being Included: Racism and diversity in institutional life by Sarah Ahmed (2012):
· Introduction (pages 1-18)
· Chapter 1 | Institutional Life (pages 19-50).
Bonus reading
The language of diversity by Ahmed (2007; Ethnic and Racial Studies) https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870601143927
Uses of Use – Diversity, Utility, and the University (a ~1 hour video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avKJ2w1mhng
March session:
‘You end up doing the document rather than doing the doing’: Diversity, race equality and the politics of documentation by Ahmed (2007; Ethnic and racial Studies).
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870701356015
On Being Included: Racism and diversity in institutional life by Sarah Ahmed (2012)
· Chapter 4 (pages 113-140)
Bonus reading
Whiteness and the General Will: Diversity Work as Willful Work by Ahmed (2012; Project Muse):
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/486618
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April session:
Enemy of the Species by Ladelle McWhorter, Chapter 2 in Queer Ecologies (2010)
Crusing Utopia (2009): read only the Introduction (note this is not the same thing as the Forward)
A super short and fun video on Cruising Utopia by José Muñoz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLLK-REZ9bA
May session:
The diversity-Innovation Paradox in Science by Hofstra et al. (2020; PNAS):
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/17/9284.short
Hidden figures in ecology and evolution by Miriti et al. (2020: Nature Ecology & Evolution):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1270-y
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Unit 2: | Promoting equity and inclusion in the classroom, advising, & mentoring |
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July session
Inclusive pedagogy and universal design approaches for diverse learning environments by Catherine Shea-Sanger, in Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education (2020):
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-1628-3_2
A Talk to Teachers by James Baldwin (1963):
https://www.spps.org/cms/lib010/MN01910242/Centricity/Domain/125/baldwin_atalktoteachers_1_2.pdf
Summer break: August & September
October session
Decolonizing teaching by Darlene St. Clair and Kyoko Kishimoto:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ916842.pdf
Decolonizing Science and Science Education in a Postcolonial Space by Boisselle (2016; Sage):
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244016635257
November session
Popaganda Radical Science (two podcasts) assembled by Sarah Mirk (2017):
https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/popaganda-radical-science
- Let’s listen to both segments by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein and Dr. Shay-Akil McLean.
Mentoring beyond Hierarchies : Multi-Mentor Systems and Models by Montgomery and Page (2016, Duke University):
https://www.nap.edu/resource/25568/Montgomery%20and%20Page%20-%20Mentoring.pdf
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Unit 3: | Dismantling white supremacy | the point of this unit is to squarely talk about race and white supremacy in order to be betters supporters/leaders of anti-racism.
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December session
So you want to fight white supremacy by Ijeoma Oluo (2017; The Establishment):
https://theestablishment.co/so-you-want-to-fight-white-supremacy-2b5735f22f9/
Anti-Racism in Higher Education: A Model for Change by Ash et al. 2020; Race and Pedagogy Journal):
https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=rpj
January session
Ten simple rules for building an anti-racist lab by Chaudhary and Berhe (2020; PLoS Computational Biology):
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008210
We Want to do more than survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love (2019, Beacon Press):
http://www.beacon.org/We-Want-to-Do-More-Than-Survive-P1446.aspx
This will include select chapters provided as PDFs
February session
Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics by Kimberle Crenshaw (1989)
Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination by Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004):
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/0002828042002561