IAU Executive Committee Working Group Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion Newsletter #10 February 2021
1) Diversity and Inclusion Day in Astronomy at the European Astronomical Society annual meeting
2) Laura Bassi Colloquium series: showcasing the work by young women astronomers from all over the world
3) Mars special session for people with hearing and visual impairments in Malaysia
4) Inclusion and Equity in Science Communication, Science Communication Debates in Portugal
5) AccessINCLUDES webinar: Universal Design and Accessibility in Broadening Participation Efforts
6) Relevant Reads
7) Around the web
8) Join our Sub Groups
9) Subscribe to our Basecamp and join the discussion
10) Share your News!
Dear friends,
Welcome to the tenth issue of the IAU Executive Committee Working Group Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion newsletter.
In this issue, we want to highlight the Laura Bassi Colloquium series organized by our colleagues in Padova, Italy. The Mars inclusive special session in Malaysia and encourage you not to miss the Diversity and Inclusion Day in Astronomy at the European Astronomical Society annual meeting.
Wishing you all our best,
Lina Canas & Amelia Ortiz-Gil
1) Diversity and Inclusion Day in Astronomy at the European Astronomical Society annual meeting
We would like to draw your attention to a special session (SS6): the Diversity and Inclusion Day in Astronomy on 2 July at this year’s annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society.
The programme will be divided into three sessions and a special event during lunch:
- Session 1: State of Diversity and Inclusion in European Astronomy
- Lunch: Race and Ethnicity in Astronomy
- Session 2: Workshop: Mentoring and supervising driven by diversity and inclusion
- Session 3: Celebrating Diversity in European Astronomy
For more information about the European Astronomical Society meeting go here: https://eas.unige.ch/EAS_meeting/
Our thanks to Jake Noel-Storr and Sara Anjos (on behalf of the Session Organizing Committee) for sharing the news.
2) Laura Bassi Colloquium series: showcasing the work by young women astronomers from all over the world
The Laura Bassi Colloquium series is a series of events that started on Women in STEM day 2021 and take place on the second Thursday of each month at 14:30 CET. The series aims at honoring Bassi’s legacy by showcasing the research work of young women astronomers.
You can find more information about the program and speakers on the “Laura Bassi” Series website: https://laurabassiseries.inaf.it
We want to thank our colleague Caterina Boccato for sharing the news.
3) Mars special session for people with hearing and visual impairments in Malaysia
Apadilangit; Universe Awareness Malaysia organized a special session on Mars for children with hearing and visual impairments. This project celebrated the successful Mars mission and brought Mars closer to all participants with the goal to excite and inspire them in astronomy and space technology. This Mars inclusive session was conducted in Bahasa Malaysia with both audio and sign language. Some of the astronomy sign language terminologies had to be created especially for the event.
You can follow Apadilangit activities on https://apadilangit.com/
We want to thank our colleague Rini from Apadilangit for sharing the news.
4) Inclusion and Equity in Science Communication, Science Communication Debates in Portugal
The latest debate of the Science Communication Debates series at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon took place on January 20th, at 3 pm UTC, with the theme “Inclusion and Equity in Science Communication” with invited speakers are Amelia Ortiz-Gil (University of Valencia), Francesca Primas (European Southern Observatory) and Jake Noel-Storr (University of Groningen). You can now watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiOuHk1DTPw
The events are free but require registration. Stay tuned for upcoming events at the official webpage (in Portuguese) https://ciencias.ulisboa.pt/pt/comunicadores-de-ciencia-em-ciencias) .
We would like to thank João Retrê for sharing the news with us.
5) AccessINCLUDES webinar: Universal Design and Accessibility in Broadening Participation Efforts
The DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center is dedicated to empowering people with disabilities through technology and education. The webinar on “Universal Design and Accessibility in Broadening Participation Efforts”
recording and slides are available online.
The organizers also shared a series of useful resources discussed during the webinar:
- Accessible Cyberlearning: A Community Report of the Current State and Recommendations for the Future
- Universal Design in Higher Education book
- Join a Community of Practice
- Apply 20 Tips for Teaching an Accessible Online Course
- Accessible Technology at the UW – See for resources re: tools, videos, procurement, and more
- HighEdWeb 2020 Accessibility Summit
- Accessible Remote Attendance from AccessSIGCHI
- Video Conferencing Platforms Feature Matrix from NAD
- Effective Practices for Description of Science Content within Digital Talking Books – for help with long descriptions
- DO-IT Line Drawings
6) Relevant Reads
Major physics society won’t meet in cities with racist policing record
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00492-3
How institutions and colleagues can help scientists who require support animals
Largest-ever survey exposes career obstacles for LGBTQ scientists
7) Around the web
A fascinating and inspiring short video about a restaurant opened by a deaf person who employs only other deaf people.
Cafe with robot waiters remotely controlled by people with reduced mobility
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/tokyo-cafe-waiters-robots-disabilities/
CaféNoir in Milano, with blind staff where people eat and drink in complete darkness
https://www.dialogonelbuio.org/index.php/it/caffenoir
8) Join our Sub Groups
The IAU EC WG on Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion sub-groups are subsets of the working group created to focus, both discussions and actions, on the different fields across inclusion.
The sub-groups
- Intend to build upon specific networks within IAU and bring in external expertise, with their members steering and informing the WGs global actions.
- Identify specific needs in the community and draft courses of action and guidelines, aligned with both the IAU Strategic Plan 2020-2030 and the Springboard of Action leveraging all dimensions of inclusion on research, outreach, education and development.
- Are in contact and close collaboration with each other through email, basecamp or online meetings, accessing the intersectionality aspects inherent to the field, avoiding duplication of the efforts carried.
We would like to invite all of you to join one or more of the subWGs according to your particular interests and expertise. Further information about the subWGs can be found here.
9) Subscribe to our Basecamp and join the discussion
We have set up a common Basecamp dedicated to all communications. As we understand that not all tools are 100% accessible we want to offer various channels tailored to our different needs. As with all the actions carried by the WG, our suggestions are open for discussion and we intend to involve our members as much as possible. Therefore if you identify any tool that would suit you please kindly let us know and we will try to implement it.
You can subscribe to our Basecamp by sending a message to Amelia Ortiz-Gil and Lina Canas with the subject: Inclusion WG Basecamp at astro4inclusion [at] oao.iau.org.
10) Share your News!
Reach out to us and share news, activities, articles, resources and events from the astronomy community for inclusion around the world. We are looking forward to reading your contributions!
Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Astro4Inclusion/