scholarly journals Forget Cleaning the House and Doing the Service, Keep Your Sanity: One Scientist’s and Mother’s Story of Not Just Surviving, but Thriving during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya Schuh

Here, I describe my personal journey as a STEM professor during the pandemic, and my struggles and successes with online teaching, research, and dealing with COVID-19, as a single mother of three children. I share my story and advice—dirty dishes, imperfections, and all. My message, based on the lived experiences of myself and many of my colleagues, evidence-based facts, and research is simple – we must learn to say no and focus our energy and strength on those things that will directly advance our promotion and that we are passionate about, not on the endless, discounted service roles we typically do. I recognize our ability to do so varies across differences of rank, race, gender, sexuality, and age. I also shed light on research on gendered institutional service and caregiving disparities, the physiology of stress and disease, systemic racism, and the disproportionate, amplified impacts the pandemic is having on women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) faculty. Gender and racial inequalities, stress, service, and caregiving demands have exponentially increased with the pandemic, which will result in long term health and economic impacts far beyond COVID-19, unless great institutional changes are made. I highlight what my institution has done well, has struggled with, and what still needs to be done. In addition to the typical extensions in the R&T (Rank and Tenure) process, which notably take women and BIPOC faculty farther away from their research and higher wages, I outline more important institutional strategies and adaptations that are needed for the viability and health of women, BIPOC, and caregiving faculty, and hence higher education as a whole. Importantly, those institutions that will fare the best will be those that take care of their faculty and students and provide truly meaningful assistance in more than just their mission statements and rhetoric.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Levy ◽  
Amy Siebold ◽  
Janani Vaidya ◽  
Marie-Michèle Truchon ◽  
Jamine Dettmering ◽  
...  

Sparked by recent events, discussions of systemic racism and racial inequalities have been pushed to the foreground of our global society, leading to what is being called the largest modern-day civil rights movement (Buchanan et al., 2020). In the past, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) activists and scholars, amongst others, have evaluated and critiqued systems and organizations within our society. Nonetheless, it was not until recently that this movement was truly noticed by a greater number of people, some of whom are now further assessing how BIPOC are viewed and treated within their organization and by society as a whole (Worland, 2020). This is not only due to the increase in video evidence (e.g., released body cam footage, social media postings), but also to the previous administration’s rhetoric and political agenda (Hubler & Bosman, 2021). Police departments, educational institutions, and large companies have, for decades, been under scrutiny for their systems and practices that promote racism, inequality, and inequity. The field of behavior analysis, with its Eurocentric roots and observed lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion, is not exempt from such evaluations. It is time that we take a look in the mirror and evaluate our own professional, research, educational, and clinical practices, and work towards creating a new, more inclusive, field of behavior analysis that promotes anti-racism and cultural humility.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Levy ◽  
Amy Siebold ◽  
Janani Vaidya ◽  
Marie-Michèle Truchon ◽  
Jamine Dettmering ◽  
...  

Sparked by recent events, discussions of systemic racism and racial inequalities have been pushed to the foreground of our global society, leading to what is being called the largest modern-day civil rights movement (Buchanan et al., 2020). In the past, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) activists and scholars, amongst others, have evaluated and critiqued systems and organizations within our society. Nonetheless, it was not until recently that this movement was truly noticed by a greater number of people, some of whom are now further assessing how BIPOC are viewed and treated within their organization and by society as a whole (Worland, 2020). This is not only due to the increase in video evidence (e.g., released body cam footage, social media postings), but also to the previous administration’s rhetoric and political agenda (Hubler & Bosman, 2021). Police departments, educational institutions, and large companies have, for decades, been under scrutiny for their systems and practices that promote racism, inequality, and inequity. The field of behavior analysis, with its Eurocentric roots and observed lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion, is not exempt from such evaluations. It is time that we take a look in the mirror and evaluate our own professional, research, educational, and clinical practices, and work towards creating a new, more inclusive, field of behavior analysis that promotes anti-racism and cultural humility.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2031
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Nunamaker ◽  
Shawn Davis ◽  
Carly I. O’Malley ◽  
Patricia V. Turner

Research animals are important for scientific advancement, and therefore, their long-term welfare needs to be monitored to not only minimize suffering, but to provide positive affective states and experiences. Currently, there is limited guidance in countries around the world on cumulative and experimental endpoints. This paper aims to explore current opinions and institutional strategies regarding cumulative use and endpoints through a scoping survey and review of current regulations and welfare assessment tools, and ultimately to provide recommendations for assessment of cumulative and lifetime use of research animals. The survey found that only 36% of respondents indicated that their institution had cumulative use endpoint policies in place, but these policies may be informal and/or vary by species. Most respondents supported more specific guidelines but expressed concerns about formal policies that may limit their ability to make case-by-case decisions. The wide diversity in how research animals are used makes it difficult for specific policies to be implemented. Endpoint decisions should be made in an objective manner using standardized welfare assessment tools. Future research should focus on robust, efficient welfare assessment tools that can be used to support planning and recommendations for cumulative endpoints and lifetime use of research and teaching animals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faye Gleisser

This article draws out the ‘politics of the misfire’ as a process constituted in part by discursive articulations of the ‘misuse’ of guns, and in part by mediated visual narratives of criminality cultivated in American visual culture. Specifically, the author examines how the decades-long historiography of artist Chris Burden’s iconic artwork, Shoot (1971), relies upon and perpetuates spatially racialized and gendered notions of innocence and safety. She argues that the conceptual art collective Asco’s theorizing of misfires in response to their vulnerability as Chicanos in America provides a vital framework for recognizing how the neutralized archetype of white masculinity, simultaneously innocent and lawless, animates and sustains the legacy of Shoot. Through consideration of geographies of cumulative vulnerability, access to resources, and systemic racism this article links processes of art historical canonization to discriminatory practices that structurally oppress people of color in the United States.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Warren ◽  
Andrew R. King ◽  
Bianca Ortiz-Wythe ◽  
Patricio Belloy ◽  
Jose Zapata Calderon ◽  
...  

This article explores intersectional organizing as a strategy to create solidarity across issues, organizations and communities to build a more united educational justice movement. By intersectional organizing, we mean an organizing strategy that centers the experiences and leadership of people who are affected by multiple forms of oppression. We conducted interviews with ten community organizers who engage parents and young people of color to address the profound inequities in public education. We found that the movement is largely siloed into separate issue-based campaigns, although there are promising examples that connect groups and issues. Organizers believe that intersectional organizing can support greater cross-movement solidarity especially when combined with other processes, including building deep relationships, developing conscious leadership with shared understandings of systemic oppression through political education, and building trust through demonstrated long-term commitments to solidarity in practice. Nevertheless, many warn against an “Oppression Olympics” that creates competition rather than solidarity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo ◽  
Apoorva Sarmal ◽  
Kasheena Rogbeer ◽  
Chloe Jeanne Andre ◽  
Bhumi Patel ◽  
...  

U.S. media has extensively covered racial disparities in COVID-19 infections and deaths. In two preregistered studies, we examined how the association between people of color and COVID-19 impacts White U.S. residents’ attitudes toward COVID-19 and people of color. Utilizing a correlational design (N = 498), we found that awareness of COVID-19 racial disparities predicted reduced fear of COVID-19 and race-related social distancing. Next, we manipulated exposure to information about COVID-19 racial disparities (N = 1,505). Reading about the systemic causes of COVID-19 racial disparities reduced support for COVID-19 safety precautions and empathy for those vulnerable to COVID-19, reduced fear of COVID-19, and increased bias against people of color. These findings have important implications for understanding how public health information may perpetuate systemic racial inequalities.


Author(s):  
A. Juan ◽  
J. Faulin ◽  
P. Fonseca ◽  
C. Steegmann ◽  
L. Pla ◽  
...  

This chapter presents a case study of online teaching in Statistics and Operations Research (OR) at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). UOC is a purely online university with headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, with students from many countries. As common to most math-related knowledge areas, teaching and learning Statistics and OR present difficult challenges in traditional higher education. These issues are exacerbated in online environments where face-to-face interactions between students and instructors as well as among students themselves are limited or non-existent. Despite these difficulties, as evidenced in the global growth of online course offerings, Web-based instruction offers comparative benefits to traditional face-to-face instruction. While there exists a plethora of literature covering experiences and best practices in traditional face-to-face instruction in mathematics, there is a lack of research describing long-term successful experiences in Statistics and OR online courses. Based on the authors’ experiences during the last decade, this chapter aims to share some insights on how to design and develop successful online courses in these knowledge areas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christy Glass ◽  
Alison Cook

Abstract Do women and racial/ethnic minority leaders pay a risk tax on their way to the top? Theories of the glass cliff have focused on the penalties imposed upon women and minority leaders due to bias and discrimination at the time of appointment to top leadership positions. Much less attention has focused on the strategic agency these leaders exercise in response to bias across the career. This paper advances theory and research on the glass cliff by analyzing the choices, decisions, and priorities of white women and people of color that, across the career, result in their appointment to glass cliff positions. Our analysis relies on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 33 senior leaders across a range of industries. Our findings suggest that rather than isolated instances of high-risk promotions, glass cliff appointments represent the culmination of a long-term career strategy centered on risk and risk-taking. We find evidence that these leaders pay a significant risk tax in order to achieve upward mobility in their organizations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136078042092224
Author(s):  
Todd C Couch

In recent years, colleges and universities in the United States have considered allowing concealed firearms on their campuses. Yet, substantive research on why a minority of students’ desire to arm themselves is scarce. Addressing this gap in the literature, this study examines 30 interviews with chapter presidents of a national student gun rights organization. Using racialized narratives, participants express intense feelings of vulnerability on campus and in the larger society. Extending Feagin’s theory of systemic racism to gun politics, I argue respondents’ belief that they must be armed to co-exist with people of color reproduces racial inequality and poses a potential threat to students, faculty, and staff of color.


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