reading (etc) list

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Below is an inexhaustive and ever-expanding list of papers and articles that I have found helpful throughout my science journey. 

• ​Decolonization
• Land Acknowledgement and Action
• Eugenics & Statistics
• Intersectionality in Feminism and Environmentalism
• Discrimination and anti-racism in science
• Advice on being a scientist

 

Decolonization
​Decolonization is the practice of "actively undoing [colonial] systems and ways of thinking" (Trisos et al 2021). Decolonization is not a metaphor or a stand-in for other diversity, equity, and inclusion work (Tuck & Yang 2012); it specifically centers on acknowledging and dismantling the history, present, and future of settler colonialism in our own scientific work. Decolonization cannot only happen "in the mind"; it must be an action in the world to unwork the harms of settler colonialism. That being said, these are some good places to start:

• Decolonization is not a metaphor. Tuck & Yang 2012, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society.
•  Decoloniality and anti-oppressive practices for a more ethical ecology. Trisos, Auerbach, & Katti 2021, Nature Ecology & Evolution.
• Decolonizing geoscience requires more than equity and inclusion. Libioron 2021, Nature Geosciences.
• Replacing “parachute science” with “global science” in ecology and conservation biology. Asase et al 2022. Conservation Science and Practice.
• Decolonizing place-names: Strategic imperative for preserving indigenous cartography in post-colonial Africa. Nna 2015, African Journal of History and Culture.
• The Global South. Dados & Connell 2012, Contexts.

 

Land Acknowledgement and Action
See this page for more information on going beyond land acknowledgements.

• What Good is a Land Acknowledgement, Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy.
• Sicangu CDC guide on land acknowledgement. [link]
• Native Governance Center’s guide [link] and explainer video [link] on land acknowledgements, as well as their 2019 Indigenous Peoples’ Day panel [video].

 

Eugenics & Statistics
When I first began studying ecology, I had no idea how much both ecology and statistics are intertwined with the history of the eugenics movement in the United States.

• Madison Grant and the Eugenics History of Biodiversity Conservation. Sarah Nason 2018 Rapid Ecology.
• How Eugenics Shaped Statistics: Exposing the damned lies of three science pioneers. Aubrey Clayton 2020 Nautilus.
• Statistics, Eugenics, and Me: A personal reckoning of my failure to acknowledge the origins of my field.​​Raphael Sonabend 2021 Medium.​

 

Intersectionality in Feminism and Environmentalism
Intersectionality, first coined by Dr. Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989, describes the need to not only address specific marginalized pieces of a person's identity (specifically Black womanhood) but to understand that the combination of these two or more identities compound to create a unique situation of marginalization, violence, and oppression.

• Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. Crenshaw 1989, The University of Chicago Legal Forum.
• The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet.​​ Leah Thomas 2022.
  
• Intersectional Experiences of Black South African Female Doctoral Students in STEM: Participation, Success and Retention. Idahosa & Mkhize 2021, Agenda.
• Doing the ‘gender dance’: Black women professionals negotiating gender, race, work and family in post-apartheid South Africa. Jaga, Arabandi, Bagraim, and Mdlongwa 2018, Community, Work & Family.
• Increasing diversity to save biodiversity: Rising to the challenge and supporting Indonesian women in conservation. ​Poor, Imron, Novalina, Shaffer, and Mullinax 2021, Conservation Science and Practice.

 

Discrimination and anti-racism
In October 2022, the publication Nature published a special issue entitled Racism: Overcoming science's toxic legacy. Here are some pieces that stood out to me (an evolving list):

• Computer science has a racism problem: these researchers want to fix it. Newsome 2022, Nature

Other resources:

• The climate crisis is a crisis of inequality. Pande 2023, Science eLetters.

• The sting of sizeism in the scientific workplace. Arnold 2022, Nature.

 

Advice on being a scientist

• Giving Shape to a Meaningful and Fulfilling Career in Science: Some No-Nonsense Advice Kamini Singha, 2023