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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. 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.

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

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.

Other Articles

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.

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