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DEI Resources

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources

The OGE is committed to fostering an inclusive research environment in which everyone can bring their full selves to their work. To help everyone to continually engage with these topics and to communicate across difference, we’ve compiled these resources. Special thanks to JP Flores for many of these recommendations. Many UNC departments are engaged in continuously improving our research community using the DEI Framework from the Office of Inclusive Excellence.

Dismantling Racism in Academia: Journal Club & Discussion Group

Graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff in the biomedical sciences (and beyond) are welcome to join us for the monthly DRA Journal Club & Discussion Group, a series of discussions for focused around on a variety of journal articles, books, podcasts, and other media. Contact Beka Layton (rlayton@med.unc.edu) for more information.

Steps We Can All Take to Fight Racism

Largely informed by the Chronicle of Higher Education, a pre-print on EcoEvoRxiv, and a letter from UNC Psychology and Neuroscience students of color to white graduate students, postdocs, and faculty

  • Don’t expect people of color to lead the actions and conversations
  • Hold regular conversations about race in science, academia, and the world we live in
  • Acknowledge current events and invite conversation. Not acknowledging them could signal that you either aren’t aware or don’t find it important.
  • You don’t have to have an answer, but you do have to listen and validate their experience
  • Discuss with students the ways that race and racism have been and continue to be a part of your field
  • Address racism in your lab guidelines
  • Collaborate, write grants, and publish with scientists of color
  • Evaluate your mentoring practices for unconscious racial bias
  • Amplify the contributions of scientists of color in your courses, invited talks, social media, etc.
  • Support people of color to organize, host discussions, and advocate
  • Intentionally recruit students and staff of color
  • Advocate for racially diverse leadership at your institution and in your professional organizations (even going as far as stepping off of a committee so that people of color can step in)
  • Make your teaching more inclusive with this guide from CHE

Research Articles

Lauer MS, Doyle J, Wang J, Roychowdhury D. Associations of topic-specific peer review outcomes and institute and center award rates with funding disparities at the NIH. eLife 2021.

Cech EA, Waidzunas TJ. Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM. Science Advances 2021; 7(3).

Huang J, Gates AJ, Sinatra R, Barabasi A-L. Historical comparison of gender inequality in scientific careers across countries and disciplines. PNAS 2020; 117(9): 4609-4616.

Hofstra B, Kulkarni VV, Munoz-Najar Galvez S, McFarland DA. The diversity-innovation paradox in science. PNAS 2020; 117(17): 9284-9291.

Hinton AO, Termini CM, Spencer EC, Rutaganira FUN, Chery D, Roby R, Vue Z, Pack AD, Brady LJ, Garza-Lopez E, Marshall AG, Lewis SC, Shuler HD, Taylor BL, McReynolds MR, Palavicino-Maggio CB. Patching the leaks: revitalizing and reimagining the STEM pipeline. Cell 2020; 183(3): 568-575.

Jimenez MF, Laverty TM, Bombaci SP, Wilkins K, Bennett DE, Pejchar L. Underrepresented faculty play a disproportionate role in advancing diversity and inclusion. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2019; 3: 1030-1033.

Hoppe TA, Litovitz A, Willis KA, Meseroll RA, Perkins MJ, Hutchins BI, Davis AF, Lauer MS, Valantine H, Anderson JM, Santangelo GM. Topic choice contributes to the lower rate of NIH awards to African-American/black scientists. Science Advances 2019; 5(10).

Griffin KA. Institutional Barriers, Strategies, and Benefits to Increasing the Representation of Women and Men of Color in the Professoriate: Looking Beyond the Pipeline. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research 2019; 35: 1-73.

Sue DW, Alsaidi S, Awad MN, Glaeser E, Calle CZ, Mendez N. Disarming racial microaggressions: microintervention strategies for targets, white allies, and bystanders. Am Psychol 2019; 74(1): 128-142.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Graduate STEM education for the 21st century. National Academies Press 2018. — Specifically Chapter 3 “ENHANCING DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION” (pp. 73-76)

Harrison C, Tanner KD. Language matters: considering microaggressions in science. CBE Life Sci Educ 2018; 17(1): fe4.

Estrada M, Eroy-Reveles A, Matsui J. The influence of affirming kindness and community on broadening participation in STEM career pathways. Soc Issues Policy Rev 2018; 12(1): 258-297.

McGee Jr R, Saran S, Krulwich TA. Diversity in the biomedical research workforce: developing talent. Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine: A Journal of Translational and Personalized Medicine 2012; 79(3): 397-411.

Haak DC, HilleRisLambers J, Pitre E, Freeman S. Increased structure and active learning reduce the achievement gap in introductory biology. Science 2011; 332(6034): 1213-1216.

Ginther DK, Schaffer WT, Schnell J, Masimore B, Liu F, Haak LL, Kington R. Race, ethnicity, and NIH research awards. Science 2011; 333(6045): 1015-1019.

Other Articles

Raising the bar on sex and gender reporting in research. Nature Medicine 2022; 28: 1099.

Fatumo S, Chikowore T, Choudhury A, Ayub M, Martin AR, Kuchenbaecker K. A roadmap to increase diversity in genomic studies. Nature Medicine 2022; 28: 243-250.

Taki F, Lurie J, Kaur G. An ethical plan for including forcibly displaced persons in omics and digital technology research. Nature Medicine 2022; 28: 1116-1120.

Jan YN. Underrepresentation of Asian awardees of United States biomedical research prizes. Cell 2022; 185(3): 407-410.

Mazrekaj D. Inclusion of LGBT+ researchers is key. Nature 2022.

Hinton A, Lambert WM. Moving diversity, equity, and inclusion from opinion to evidence. Cell Reports Medicine 2022; 3.

Gosztyla ML, Kwong L, Murray NA, Williams CE, Behnke N, Curry P, Corbett KD, DSouza KN, de Pablo JG, Gicobi J, Javidnia M, Lotay N, Prescott SM, Quinn JP, Rivera ZMG, Tang KTY, Venkat A, Yamoah MA. Responses to 10 common criticisms of anti-racism action in STEMM. PLOS Computational Biology 2021.

Levine AG. How to begin building a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion in your research group. Science 2021.

Armada-Moreira A, Cizauskas C, Fleury G, Forslund SK, Guthman EM, Hanafiah A, Hope JM, Jayasinghe I, McSweeney D, Young ID. STEM Pride: perspectives from transgender, nonbinary, and genderqueer scientists. Cell 2021; 184(13): 3352-3355.

Bernard MA, Johnson AC, Hopkins-Laboy T, Tabak LA. The US NIH approach to inclusive excellence. Nature Medicine 2021; 27: 1861-1864.

Santora T. How four transgender researchers are improving the health of their communities. Nature Medicine 2021; 27: 2074-2077.

Collins FS, Adams AB, Aklin C, et al. Affirming NIH’s commitment to addressing structural racism in the biomedical research enterprise. Cell 2021; 184(12): 3075-3079.

Taffe MA, Gilpin NW. Equity, diversity and inclusion: racial inequity in grant funding from the US NIH. eLife 2021.

Harriot A. A practical guide to mentoring across intersections. VanguardSTEM Conversations 2021.

Stevens KR, Masters KS, Imoukhuede PI, Haynes KA, Setton LA, Cosgriff-Hernandez E, Bell MAL, Rangamani P, Sakiyama-Elbert SE, Finley SD, Willitis RK, Koppes AN, Chesler NC, Christman KL, Allen JB, Wong JY, El-Samad H, Desai TA, Eniola-Adefeso O. Fund Black scientists. Cell 2021.

Cooper KM, Auerbach AJJ, Bader JD, Beadles-Bohling AS, Brashears JA, Cline E, Eddy SL, Elliott DB, Farley E, Fuselier L, Heinz HM, Irving M, Josek T, Lane AK, Lo SM, Maloy J, Nugent M, Offerdahl E, Palacios-Moreno J, Ramos J, Reid JW, Sparks RA, Waring AL, Wilton M, Gormally C, Brownell SE. Fourteen recommendations to create a more inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ individuals in academic biology. CBE-Life Sciences Education 2020; 19(3).

Bachman M, Dickerson KC, Hakimi S, Li R, Yang B. How we formed a ‘journal club’ for equity in science. Nature 2020.

Brady DC, Weeraratna AT. The race toward equity: increasing racial diversity in cancer research and cancer care. Cancer Discovery 2020; 10(10): 1451-1454.

Gewin V. What Black scientists want from colleagues and their institutions. Nature 2020.

Graves J, Jarvis ED. An Open Letter: Scientists and Racial Justice. The Scientist 2020.

Anderson-Thompkins S, Osborne-Adams D. Talking about race in the workplace. UNC SOM Vital Signs 2020.

Center for Scientific Review. Content Analysis: Forums on Racial Disparities in Peer Review and More. 2020.

Winter L. Black in X addresses long-standing inequity in STEM. The Scientist 2020.

Odekunle EA. To see a face like mine. Cell 2020; 183(3): 564-567.

Armstrong A, Lomax J, Traylor-Knowles N, Samba-Louaka A, Towers C. On being black in the ivory tower. Cell 2020; 183(3): 559-560.

Edwards M, Johnson MDL, Fernandez RW, Montgomery BL, Adelaja A, Akingbade T. Mentoring to foster a diverse future. Cell 2020; 183(3): 561-563.

Biswas S. Advice on advising: how to mentor minority students. Chronicle of Higher Education 2019.

Barbour S. The importance of mentoring. ASBMB Today 2018.

Barbour S. Perspectives for the future and advice for aspiring scientists. ASBMB Today 2018.

Byrnes WM. The Forgotten Father of Epigenetics. American Scientist.

Gosztyla M, Kwong L, Murray N, Williams C. Responses to 10 common criticisms of anti-racism action in STEM.

Research Talks

Gibbs K. Diversity in Biomedical Research. American Society of Cell Biology 2019.

Videos

Why Can’t White People Talk about Race? Interview with Dr. Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility

New York Times video series: White People on Race, Black Women on Race, Latinx Individuals on Race, Native Americans on Race, Asian-Americans on Race, Growing up Black in America, Raising Black Children in America

Improving Diversity in Science videos from iBiology

Books

Lilavati’s Daughters: The Women Scientists of India, edited by Rohini Godbole and Ram Ramaswamy

Interactives & Discussions

Test yourself for implicit bias from Project Implicit at Harvard

Talking about Race, resources from the National Museum of African American History & Culture

In-depth training resources from Academics for Black Survival and Wellness

Juneteenth

Letter from Dr. Nathan Thomas, UNC SOM’s Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (2020)

Local Juneteenth 2020 celebrations

Video from Austin PBS on the significance of the Juneteenth holiday

Show and movie recommendations from TV Guide

Further Reading, Watching, and Listening

Anti-Racism Resources from UNC’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion

Resources to fight racism from the Duke Center for Advanced Hindsight

Black Liberation Reading List from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library

Training Opportunities