Take Action Tuesday

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the Hawaii island in the US and it is one of the best sites on the planet for astronomical observations - its high altitude, low humidity, and thin atmosphere make it ideal for observing the Universe. There are 13 telescopes at Mauna Kea today, built on land leased by the University of Hawaii from the state. This land is considered sacred by native Hawaiians. The proposed TMT -- Thirty Meter Telescope -- would be the largest optical telescope ever built in the northern hemisphere and it would be build on sacred land. 

Since the Supreme Court of Hawaii allowed construction of the TMT to proceed on Mauna Kea in October 2018, hundreds of protestors/protectors have blocked construction crews from accessing the mountain top. In response, the Governor of Hawaii declared an emergency, and 33 Native Hawaiian elders were arrested. Protestors/protectors remain at the site.

These protests have been interpreted by many as a clash of science vs. tradition. But that is a false premise and false choice. TMT is a the latest in what is essentially centuries of Western scientific progress at the expense of Native rights. Many of us in the scientific community have benefited the current Western scientific system and many of us are deeply embedded in this system today.

It is time to ask ourselves if we as scientists want to further this kind of a system, continuing and benefiting from oppression of Indigenous people, knowledge, and way of life. Many scientists and astronomers have been speaking out against the TMT and early-career scientists from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds and communities of color have been leading the charge.

Today, we ask our amazing community of scientists and supporters from across the globe to:

• Read the open letter from astronomy graduate students

• Read Native Hawaiian scientist Sara Kahanamoku’s article about the opportunity to change the way we do science.

• Check out Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s Decolonizing Science reading list.

• Check to see if your institution a Member or Partner of TMT and ask your institution about how they will address the rights of Native Hawaiians.

• Finally, (and especially if you are in a position of privilege), call out racism in your scientific communities. Condemning clearly racist words and tweets in a way that doesn’t negatively impact our daily lives is easy. Standing up to stop the construction of a scientific instrument that perpetuates historical injustices faced by Native communities is a lot harder to do, but equally necessary. We need to do both.

Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash

Weekly Wrap-Up

Happy Friday! This week has had some real lows (#RacistTrump, Suzanne Eaton news, #TMTShutdown), but we must remember that joy is a revolutionary act and the fuel for our activism. Lets get into the joy and don’t forget to send us your great summer reads.

WHAT WE’VE DONE

• Got a High Five from Oprah

• Pointed out that the gender gap and discrimination in STEM is oversimplified and not representative of the range of gender and other identities

• Posted application details for the #Fellowship4theFuture

WHAT WE LIKE

• Follow Friday: Sci-Commers @HanaAyoob, @NikiRust, @priyology ‏and social scientists @robingnelson, @xshinbrot, @meredithgore

• #ProtectMaunaKea and #TMTShutdown

• Love - to spark a movement & lead a revolution to combat climate change

• Resources to engage with anti-oppressive, equity, and social justice work

• Jess Wade is the UK Wikimedian of the year

• #WomenLeadClimate

READING CORNER

• Small Island by Andrea Levy (fiction)

• Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi (memoir)

• The Fossil Hunter by Shelley Emling (non-fiction)

IN OUR EARBUDS

• The Stakes, with Kai Wright: “The invention of sexual harassment”

• The Cut: “How to stay sane while saving the country”

• Mothers of Invention: “Fish out of hot water”

• Jane Zelikova on eTown podcast with Justin Towne Earle and Emily Gimble, discussing 500WS origins and mission.

Photo by Valentin on Unsplash

Take Action Tuesday

Today we call on our science community and supporters to donate to #Fellowship4TheFuture to support women of color who are working hard to make science more diverse, inclusive, equitable, with an abundance of social justice too! 

For those of you who may not have the funds to donate, or want to do a little more for this amazing cause, please consider tweeting @YOURUniversities, current or alumnus, asking Deans at your university to donate too! The Dean of Science at Columbia University @PdeMenocal was the first Dean to stand up and with #FellowshipForTheFuture and we would love to see more Deans make that pledge!

Help us be the change we want to see in our own science community.

#FundTheFuture

Weekly Wrap-Up

Happy summer everyone! Jane Zelikova here - I am going to be doing the weekly wrap-up posts for the next few weeks. Since its summer in the northern hemisphere, I’m adding a Reading Corner, highlighting things that are on the 500 Women Scientists leadership team’s summer reading list. If you have suggestions for great summer reads, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

WHAT WE’VE DONE

• Vote NO on Barry Myers for NOAA #takeactiontuesday

• Wendy Bohon explained earthquakes (go to minute 3 in the video)

• Fundraised for the #Fellowship4theFuture

WHAT WE LIKE

• Follow Friday: Follow these badass AI/Robotics WOC: @JovialJoy, @DeAiraBryant, @robotsmarts ‏and folks working to broaden participation in STEM #inclusiveteaching @RRGIowaState,‏ @vijisathy, @DrMrsKellyHogan, @rosiejperez ‏

• USWNT #winniest #EqualPay

• Birds of North America and Jason Ward’s birdwatching prowess

• Bowties to help shelter animals get adopted

• Rewatching Abby Wambach’s 2018 commencement speech at Barnard College

READING CORNER

• THICK by Tressie McMillan Cotton

• Superior by Angela Saini

• The Onion’s coverage of climate change

Photo by Vikram TKV on Unsplash

Take Action Tuesday

Today, we call on the science community to reach out to their elected US Senators to oppose the nomination of Barry Myers as head of NOAA.

Barry Myers has a track record of disregarding widespread sexual harassment allegations in his company AccuWeather. He has no science background. And he has spent decades attacking NOAA, the very agency he would be tasked with overseeing. He is unfit, he is morally corrupt, and he should not be confirmed.

All senators should be contacted but there are a handful of senators who should be especially targeted to oppose Barry Myers’ nomination, If you live in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Arizona, or Maine, tell your Senators to not confirm Barry Myers.

Alaska: Senator Lisa Murkowski - list of local offices and phone numbers.

Arizona: Martha McSally

Colorado: Senator Cory Gardner - list of local offices and phone numbers.

Maine: Senator Susan Collins - list of local offices and phone numbers.

Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash

Today’s post by Jane Zelikova

Understanding Our Curiosity

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Reyhaneh Maktoufi, a science communication researcher getting her PhD at Northwestern University and a producer for the science-inspired storytelling show the Story Collider. In this interview, she chats about her path to science communication. She also shares her latest science-art endeavor, which features insights from women sharing their approaches to weaving empathy and inclusion into their science communication efforts. You can follow her online at @TheCosmicRey.

How did you find your way to science communication?

When I was in high school, I was an amateur astronomer. I’d wear my hand-made, weird-looking NASA pin in Tehran, go to a park or our school with my binoculars, and talk to people about astronomy. I loved learning about science, but the joy I’d get from telling stories about science was something different. Between high school and my PhD, I studied physiotherapy and then health psychology and focused more on health communication. I’d wear a cancer awareness pin, go to public places with brochures, and talk to people about cancer screening!

After working with different nonprofits developing advocacy campaigns, teaching experts how to become better communicators for a few years, I started a PhD at Northwestern in Media, Technology, and Society. There I got the opportunity to do an internship for the Adler Planetarium, where I started to expand my health communication knowledge to my original love, astronomy and physics. Now I focus more on general principles of science communication in different fields.

What does your research on communication center on?

Ah, curious about my research? I focus on curiosity! (budum, tss!) I study what planetarium visitors are curious about, what encourages them to ask more questions, and how we can elicit more curiosity. I’m also running a study to see if stories told by a person who self-discloses as a climate scientist can make their audiences more curious. I want to see if that curiosity would lead an audience to trust the scientist more, as well as perceive the risks of climate change as more plausible. My previous research was mostly about how scientists use pop culture references and science fiction to build a mutual ground with their audience.

Before your PhD, you worked in Tehran, Iran as a health communication facilitator. How did that experience of on-the-ground communication inform your work today?

It’s all about empathy! I worked for a while in a hospice and for a nonprofit in cancer advocacy. I remember one of my patients in the hospice just wanted to tell someone that she is scared of death, and that she doesn’t want to try to be happy. And it was hard to do so when the family constantly is trying to tell her that she is not going to die, and that she should try to find ways to be happy. Empathy is about listening, understanding, and not constantly offering solutions. As scientists, it’s hard for us to just listen. We don’t get trained to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, and most importantly, to not immediately focus on offering solutions. While the story of my patient might be a very intense example, it really made me realize what most of us truly want: to be given space, to be heard and seen. This is one of the reasons I study curiosity. I think being curious and asking questions helps us listen and learn from one another. So curiosity can ultimately make us more empathetic.

You also do quite a bit of communication through sci-art (or the intersection of science and art). You’ve got a project underway now featuring advice from women in science communication based on empathy and inclusion. Can you talk a bit about what inspired the project?

It all started when I attended a talk by Dr. Dominique Brossard about fake news and why people share fake news. Now, I’m a doodler, I usually can’t stop sketching when someone is giving a talk or teaching. The way Dominique talked about her research was so easy to understand and to follow that I could easily turn her words into sketches. I had an urge to share her words with others. I know many people like me are visual learners, so I went home, made a small simple comic about why people share comics, and posted it on my Instagram and blog. Some people seemed to enjoy it!

Learning about science communication from women I respected, like Dr. Katharine Hayhoe and Dr. Mónica Feliú-Mójer made me also realize different approaches they had as opposed to famous communicators like Bill Nye. While people like Bill Nye, who are role models to many young scientists, base they communication on anger, condescension, and rudeness, other women I knew were talking about empathy, understanding others, building mutual grounds, and understanding how our privileges affects our science communication. So I decided to start a project where I can share with more people their words.

What’s been the biggest take away from the project?

To be inclusive when talking about inclusivity. The main theme of the comics is empathy and inclusivity in science communication. When I was talking to NPR’s Madeleine Sofia (she’s a great mentor) about the comic, she reminded me of the importance of inclusivity in my own project. This was a good reminder for me to be more aware of who I’m representing in the comic series and who I’m missing out. I still have a long way to go through.

When you’e not working on your PhD or engaged in science communication efforts of your own, how do you relax and unwind?

Apart from staring at the wall and making up soap opera stories in my head, one of my favorite things is practicing samurai swordsmanship (Mugai Ryu style) at the Japanese culture center. While it just makes me feel badass, it’s a great way to meditate and build a community outside of school and academia!

Reyhaneh Maktoufi is a Ph.D. candidate in Media, Technology, and Society at Northwestern University. Her main fields of interest are science communication, curiosity, and public engagement with scientists. She works at the Nonprofit Network and Social Impact Lab where she researches nonprofit mergers and attitudes toward nonprofit-corporation partnerships. She is also a visiting researcher at the Adler Planetarium, where she studies science communication and facilitates workshops on communication skills and a producer at The Story Collider.

Before starting a Ph.D., Rey has been working as a health communication facilitator and cancer preventive/palliative care campaign manager in Tehran, Iran. Rey currently enjoys working with different nonprofits such as the Communicating Science Conference (ComSciCon). She also engages in science outreach through writing blog-posts and making science comics.