History of the Biology Antiracism Committee
The Biology Anti-racism Committee (BAC) was formed in summer 2020 by members of the Department of Biology in response to the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor as well as to support members of our community who have experienced racism. Composed of faculty, staff and graduate students, BAC works with the CAS Diversity and Inclusion Action Team as well as the university’s office of Diversity and Inclusion to accomplish our goals listed above. BAC meets on a monthly basis and structurally has working groups focused on “Inclusive Pedagogy and Mentoring” and “Recruitment”.
What We’ve Done
Over the past year we have sponsored or co-sponsored the following efforts:
- separate town halls for undergraduate and graduate students to express their concerns about racist and other noninclusive behavior at BU and to have the opportunity to offer suggestions to improve diversity within the department
workshops and seminars on: 1) identifying blindspots, 2) the importance of diversity in the scientific community, 3) teaching about racism in the biology classroom, and 4) recognizing racism in science and medicine. - the development of two new courses that focus on being anti-racist in the health sciences: 1) Analyzing Bias and Discrimination in Medicine, Health, and Science, and 2) Institutional Racism in Health and Science.
- funding of an Emerging Scholars Award from the office of Diversity and Inclusion to promote diverse faculty recruitment. The first symposium is planned for September 27, 2021.
- planning for an annual Biology Prospective Scholars Preview event to aid in recruiting a diverse graduate student population.
book club on “Successful STEM Mentoring Initiatives for Underrepresented Students”.
In addition, members of BAC have participated in many other workshops and educational events organized by others at BU, as well as external events, to improve our capacity for antiracist work, including (but not limited to) those focused on Inclusive Pedagogy, Building Inclusive Departmental Culture, Wholistic Graduate Recruitment, Diversifying Seminar Series, Diversifying Faculty Recruitment, “Picture A Scientist” Screening and Campus-Wide Discussion, and Faculty Mentorship.