Author Archives: Colleen Stone

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Call for 2021-2022 SJRC Graduate Student Researcher

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Interested in the Intersections of Science and Justice?

Want to Develop Responsible Collaborative Research and Public Events?

Science & Justice seeks a graduate student researcher who:

  • has successfully completed the Science & Justice Training Program;
  • is able to attend SJWG meetings typically on Wednesday’s from 4-6PM and create rapporteur reports;
  • actively participates in building science and justice research and has an interest in mentoring others on research projects;
  • is interested in facilitating Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) trainings or workshops; and
  • can translate trending news items that integrate components of real world applications with science and justice concerns into blog pieces that are posted on the S&J website and shared on social media.

The Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) is offered a 50% appointment.

To Apply: submit materials to scijust@ucsc.edu 

BY: Monday, July 26, 2021 12noon

Applicants should email their CV and a 1-2 page application that presents:

  • what experiences they have that would make them good for this position;
  • their interests in the Center’s research and how their work/research/career goals would benefit from the position;
  • their ideas about cross-divisional and interdisciplinary collaborations, especially among humanists, engineers, natural scientists, artists and social scientists as well as ones that are community/academia partnerships;
  • and what ideas they would bring to S&J.

Key Items for 2021-2022

Research Projects – Assist in Science & Justice research projects (for example: Just Biomedicine, Incarcerated Care, Theorizing Race After Race); assist with developing and maintaining collaborations among humanists, engineers, natural scientists, artists and social scientists as well as community/academia partnerships at all scholarly levels. Help to engage undergraduates in faculty led collaborative projects.

CURRICULUM – Assist with developing undergraduate curriculum including a minor and linkages between the social sciences, African Diaspora Studies, history, politics, and genomic science to better understand questions of diversity.

Fall/Winter/Spring Programming – Work with a planning committee on Science & Justice programming.

General Scope – In consultation with the Center Manager and Director(s), the GSR will assist to implement Center programming and research. Correspond with Project Leaders on the development of research projects and help oversee undergraduate student researchers. Responsibilities may include: organizing, planning, and co-facilitating groups; training and coordinating teams of undergraduate researchers who may also be co-facilitating groups and assist with documentation, interviews, transcription and data analysis; fostering collaboration and teamwork among researchers; reviewing research relevant to Center themes and areas of inquiry; creating infographics, outreach materials, and reports and articles based on findings or events; develop and contribute to Center communication channels (ie: blog posts, news articles) for sharing research findings on campus and to the broader public; and participating in core SJRC activities and happenings.

White Jasmin with green leaves.

Meet new Science & Justice affiliate, Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez!

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On May 12th we were delighted to gather with and learn from another new Science & Justice Affiliate, Dr. Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez! Dr. Gutierrez is an Assistant Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz whose research expertise spans Philippine history, science and technology studies, Southeast Asian studies, and the history of colonial botany.

At this works-in-progress talk, Dr. Gutierrez presented work from her upcoming book, Sovereign Vernaculars: Philippine Plant Knowledge at the Dawn of New Imperial Botany, which builds on her dissertation work looking at botany under both Spanish and U.S. colonial regimes at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Philippines. Dr. Gutierrez explained that she came to this project through originally working in public health with Southeast Asian immigrant communities in Los Angeles. In Filipino culture, medicinal plants hold a central role in matters of health, and as she began learning the history of Filipino botany and public health, she discovered further how plants had been positioned to reify the Philippine nation-state form, most directly following WWII when the state gained independence from the U.S in 1946.

Dr. Gutierrez described the evolution of her research from originally focusing on colonial botany to realizing she wants to center more diverse vernacular knowledges in knowing and living with plants: “Vernacular knowledge of plants enabled political, social, and intellectual possibilities, otherwise masked by Linnean (Latin) botany.” Researching vernacular knowledges has brought up many open-ended methodological and disciplinary questions for her. How does one become intimate with vernacular knowledges, especially historical knowledges swirling around the formation of a newly independent nation-state, and how can these knowledges best be articulated through modern research methodologies? Further, Dr. Gutierrez and audience members discussed what kind of disciplinary project her work is – will the finished manuscript be a work of Philippine history through a more traditional disciplinary lens of history, or will the project be articulated mainly through interdisciplinary science and technology studies (STS) frameworks? Ideally, she said, it will be both, though the challenge is to do this in a nuanced way. Attendees discussed ways to carve out room for a science studies approach to thinking about vernacular intimacies of plants and botany within a historical reading of Philippine nation-state history.

Mainly focusing the talk on one chapter of her manuscript, “A Sampaguita by No Other Name,” Dr. Gutierrez explained that the Sampaguita is a small white-flowered jasmine, which was proclaimed the national flower of the Philippines in 1934. Central to the emerging national imaginary was a gendered understanding of this plant: The Sampaguita was imagined and articulated by Manila-based elites to represent the reproductive woman, fertile for growing the nation. However, the national reliance on the Sampaguita has not been without its contradictions: It is believed to be native to the Bengal region, not to the Philippines; and its name purportedly derives from Arabic, not Tagalog. Yet, despite these, the Sampaguita became a nationalist symbol of sovereignty imagined by Manila-based intellectuals.

After showing numerous examples of the Sampaguita’s symbolism and uses across Philippine culture both geographically and temporally, Dr. Gutierrez brought up a contemporary development that seems to be increasingly a part of her project: As recently as 2020, another flower, the Waling-waling, has been championed by some in the Philippines to become a second national flower. As this presentation showed, this debate becomes about both Philippine culture and Filipina femininity: The Waling-waling, whose gendered associations are yet unclear, is not only a threat to nationalism (through its challenge to the Manila-based ruling class, with its ties to colonial power and its championing of the Sampaguita) but to idealized femininity itself in the country. Attendees agreed that the Waling-waling can serve as a nice counterpoint to the Sampaguita’s story. Thinking about these flowers both separately and together can allow Dr. Gutierrez to traverse and connect in new ways multiple threads such as trade and imperialism, value comparisons of natural resources (the Sampaguita is commonly grown on Philippine islands, while the Waling-waling is in danger of going extinct), as well as questions of linguistics and working across multiple languages both inside and outside of formal botanical archives.

We look forward to seeing Dr. Gutierrez’s book come to fruition! She also currently works on various projects, including co-leading the STS Futures Initiative and working with The Tobera Project, a community-driven public history initiative to uplift stories of Filipino families, migration, and the environment in the greater Pajaro Valley, CA.

More on Kathleen’s work can be found at: https://history.ucsc.edu/about/faculty.php?uid=kgutie20.

Petition filed by UAW to represent Graduate Student Employees

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On May 24, 2021 the UAW (Student Researchers United / International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America) filed a petition to become the union that represents Graduate Student Researchers (GSRs). This filing triggers a UC system-wide legal obligation, where we must post the petition through June 24, 2021.

Please review the petition.

May 26, 2021 | Book Launch! Bad Dog: Pit Bull Politics and Multispecies Justice

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On Wednesday, May 26, 2021 from 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM SJRC scholars joined in celebration of Harlan Weaver’s book launch! Bad Dog: Pit Bull Politics and Multispecies Justice (University of Washington Press, 2021).

A recording of the presentation is available here.

Bad Dog Pit Bull Politics and Multispecies Justice

Bad Dog examines pit bulls and animal shelter politics through the lens of what I term “interspecies intersectionality” in order to identify how relationships between humans and non-human animals shape and are shaped by experiences of gender, race, colonialism, nation, and sexuality. Traversing themes ranging from contemporary claims to “rescue,” the history of the human, the ontological emergences/becomings of human/pit bull relationships, and the queer possibilities for challenging normative kinship inherent in pit bull politics, Bad Dog provides a compelling interdisciplinary argument for a justice that engages the needs, desires, and imaginings of marginalized humans and non-human animals together. 

Harlan Weaver is assistant professor of gender, women, and sexuality studies at Kansas State University.

Call for Participation

Summer 2021 Undergraduate Student Researcher Opportunity

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The Science & Justice Research Center is pleased to announce we are now accepting applications for a:

Summer Undergraduate Fellowship

The award was established to support summer research conducted by undergraduate students currently working on established collaborative Center research projects. Undergraduate students in any UC Santa Cruz department may apply. Preference will be given to applicants currently involved in projects. The award is intended as a stipend to support general living expenses, fieldwork or travel (as allowed by COVID-19 and shelter-in-place restrictions), presentation of work, and/or research. Fellowships may support: assisting with conducting interviews and transcription, data analysis and editing of interviews; creating infographics and outreach materials, articles or reports based on findings or events; sharing findings with the broader public (ie: blogposts, news articles). More specifically, tracking, collecting, and organizing articles about the social, political, and economic dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic written by prominent theorists of race, inequality, and STS; or assist with research on and collecting materials related to pharmaceutical licensing agreements bringing drugs to the market, as well as ethical and equity issues related to orphan-disease drug discovery and dissemination. Award amounts may vary up to $500 based on proposed budgets and outcomes; a maximum $2000 in total will be distributed.

CURRENT COLLABORATIVE SUMMER PROJECTS

Incarcerated Care

Theorizing Race After Race

The student should:

  • Be currently enrolled as an undergraduate student at UC Santa Cruz (enrollment during summer not required).
  • Work on an established Center project with support from the faculty lead.
  • Propose clear goals and intended outcomes with: an outline of items to be completed over summer 2021, the methods of your research project; and briefly outline or describe the expenses to be supported by the award.

The student will:

  • Be awarded at the beginning of summer.
  • Adhere to IRB standards for working with human research subjects if applicable.
  • Submit an end-of-summer report of project status and/or research findings.
  • Be offered a fellowship with the SJRC and listed on the Project’s webpage.

To Apply:

By Monday, May 24, students should email (scijust@ucsc.edu) expressing interest, letting us know and sending the following:

  1. Your name, major, academic faculty advisor(s).
  2. Your resume/CV.
  3. Why you are interested in the project and how your work/research/career goals would benefit from the fellowship.
  4. Your role and experiences with the current project as related to items listed in an outlined proposal.
  5. Any ideas briefly describing potential research to be completed over Summer 2021.
Call for Participation

Summer 2021 Graduate Student Researcher Opportunity

Posted on by

The Science & Justice Research Center is pleased to announce we are now accepting applications for:

Summer Graduate Fellowships

The award was established to support summer research conducted by graduate students currently working on established collaborative Center research projects. Graduate students in any UC Santa Cruz department may apply. Preference will be given to applicants who are currently going through or have completed the Training Program. The award is intended as a stipend to support general living expenses, fieldwork or travel (as allowed by COVID-19 and shelter-in-place restrictions), presentation of work, and/or research. Fellowships may support: organizing, planning, and co-facilitating groups; training and coordinating a team of undergraduate researchers and assist with documentation, interviews, transcription and data analysis; fostering collaboration and teamwork among researchers; creating infographics and posters, outreach materials, or articles and reports based on findings or events; sharing findings with the broader public (ie: blogposts, news articles). Award amounts may vary up to $2,500 based on proposed budgets and outcomes; a maximum $10,000 in total will be distributed.

CURRENT COLLABORATIVE SUMMER PROJECTS

Incarcerated Care

Just Biomedicine

Theorizing Race After Race (TRAR)

______

The student should:

  • Be an enrolled graduate student at UC Santa Cruz (enrollment during summer not required).
  • Work on an established Center project with support from the faculty lead.
  • Propose clear goals and intended outcomes with: an outline of items to be completed over summer 2021, the methods of your research project; and briefly outline or describe the expenses to be supported by the award.

The student will:

  • Be awarded at the beginning of summer.
  • Adhere to IRB standards for working with human research subjects when applicable.
  • Submit an end-of-summer report of project status and/or research findings.
  • Be offered a fellowship with the SJRC and listed on the Project’s webpage.

To Apply:

By Monday, May 24, students should email (scijust@ucsc.edu) expressing interest. Please let us know the following:

  1. Your name, major, academic faculty advisor(s).
  2. Your resume/CV.
  3. Why you are interested in the project and how your work/research/career goals would benefit from the fellowship.
  4. Your role and experiences with the current project as related to items listed in an outlined proposal.
  5. Any ideas briefly describing potential research to be completed over Summer 2021.

May 12, 2021 | Works-in-Progress with Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez

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Wednesday, May 12, 2021

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Join SJRC scholars for an open discussion of works-in-progress! This is a wonderful chance to engage with one another’s ideas, and support our own internal work.

At this session, we will hear from Science & Justice affiliate, Assistant Professor of History Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez who will discuss the cultural and intellectual history of the sampaguita, a species of jasmine presently known as the national flower of the Philippines, and its gendered (and gendering) ties to the nationalist imagination.

More on Kathleen’s work can be found at: https://history.ucsc.edu/about/faculty.php?uid=kgutie20.

Kathleen is Assistant Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz.

Rapporteur Report

By SJRC GSR Dennis Browe (sociology)

On May 12th we were delighted to gather with and learn from another new Science & Justice Affiliate, Dr. Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez! Dr. Gutierrez is an Assistant Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz whose research expertise spans Philippine history, science and technology studies, Southeast Asian studies, and the history of colonial botany.

At this works-in-progress talk, Dr. Gutierrez presented work from her upcoming book, Sovereign Vernaculars: Philippine Plant Knowledge at the Dawn of New Imperial Botany, which builds on her dissertation work looking at botany under both Spanish and U.S. colonial regimes at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Philippines. Dr. Gutierrez explained that she came to this project through originally working in public health with Southeast Asian immigrant communities in Los Angeles. In Filipino culture, medicinal plants hold a central role in matters of health, and as she began learning the history of Filipino botany and public health, she discovered further how plants had been positioned to reify the Philippine nation-state form, most directly following WWII when the state gained independence from the U.S in 1946.

Dr. Gutierrez described the evolution of her research from originally focusing on colonial botany to realizing she wants to center more diverse vernacular knowledges in knowing and living with plants: “Vernacular knowledge of plants enabled political, social, and intellectual possibilities, otherwise masked by Linnean (Latin) botany.” Researching vernacular knowledges has brought up many open-ended methodological and disciplinary questions for her. How does one become intimate with vernacular knowledges, especially historical knowledges swirling around the formation of a newly independent nation-state, and how can these knowledges best be articulated through modern research methodologies? Further, Dr. Gutierrez and audience members discussed what kind of disciplinary project her work is – will the finished manuscript be a work of Philippine history through a more traditional disciplinary lens of history, or will the project be articulated mainly through interdisciplinary science and technology studies (STS) frameworks? Ideally, she said, it will be both, though the challenge is to do this in a nuanced way. Attendees discussed ways to carve out room for a science studies approach to thinking about vernacular intimacies of plants and botany within a historical reading of Philippine nation-state history.

Mainly focusing the talk on one chapter of her manuscript, “A Sampaguita by No Other Name,” Dr. Gutierrez explained that the Sampaguita is a small white-flowered jasmine, which was proclaimed the national flower of the Philippines in 1934. Central to the emerging national imaginary was a gendered understanding of this plant: The Sampaguita was imagined and articulated by Manila-based elites to represent the reproductive woman, fertile for growing the nation. However, the national reliance on the Sampaguita has not been without its contradictions: It is believed to be native to the Bengal region, not to the Philippines; and its name purportedly derives from Arabic, not Tagalog. Yet, despite these, the Sampaguita became a nationalist symbol of sovereignty imagined by Manila-based intellectuals.

After showing numerous examples of the Sampaguita’s symbolism and uses across Philippine culture both geographically and temporally, Dr. Gutierrez brought up a contemporary development that seems to be increasingly a part of her project: As recently as 2020, another flower, the Waling-waling, has been championed by some in the Philippines to become a second national flower. As this presentation showed, this debate becomes about both Philippine culture and Filipina femininity: The Waling-waling, whose gendered associations are yet unclear, is not only a threat to nationalism (through its challenge to the Manila-based ruling class, with its ties to colonial power and its championing of the Sampaguita) but to idealized femininity itself in the country. Attendees agreed that the Waling-waling can serve as a nice counterpoint to the Sampaguita’s story. Thinking about these flowers both separately and together can allow Dr. Gutierrez to traverse and connect in new ways multiple threads such as trade and imperialism, value comparisons of natural resources (the Sampaguita is commonly grown on Philippine islands, while the Waling-waling is in danger of going extinct), as well as questions of linguistics and working across multiple languages both inside and outside of formal botanical archives.

We look forward to seeing Dr. Gutierrez’s book come to fruition! She also currently works on various projects, including co-leading the STS Futures Initiative and working with The Tobera Project, a community-driven public history initiative to uplift stories of Filipino families, migration, and the environment in the greater Pajaro Valley, CA.

May 4, 2021 | Book launch! Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement & Resistance (PM Press, 2021)

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On Tuesday, May 4, 2021 at 5:30pm–7:00pm, there was a University Forum to celebrate the launch of Counterpoints featuring original research from multiple campus contributors including SJRC’s Just Biomedicine research cluster and the No Place Like Home initiative.
A recording can be found on YouTube.
Grid with plant roots

Book cover for Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement and Resistance (PM Press)

Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement and Resistance (PM Press, forthcoming) brings together cartography, essays, illustrations, poetry, and more in order to depict gentrification and resistance struggles from across the San Francisco Bay Area and act as a roadmap to counter-hegemonic knowledge making and activism.

Learn More about Counterpoints.

About the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project

The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AEMP) is a data visualization, critical cartography, and multimedia storytelling collective that documents displacement and resistance struggles on gentrifying landscapes. With chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and Los Angeles, the collective works with numerous community partners and housing justice networks in order to provide data, maps, stories, and tools for resisting displacement. AEMP has produced hundreds of maps, oral histories, and multimedia pieces, as well as dozens of community events and reports, and numerous academic and public facing articles, book chapters, and murals. AEMP’s work has been presented in a variety of venues, from art galleries and collectives to neighborhood block parties, from academic colloquia and conferences to community workshops and book fairs.

Erin McElroy is a postdoctoral researcher at New York University’s AI Now Institute, researching the digital platforms and technologies used by landlords in order to surveil, evict, and racialize tenants. Erin is cofounder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and coeditor of its forthcoming atlas, Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement and Resistance. Having earned a doctoral degree in Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a focus on the politics of space, race, and technology in and between postsocialist Romania and post-Cold War Silicon Valley, Erin is invested in transnational analyses and international solidarity organizing for housing, racial, and technological justice. To this end, Erin is a founding editor of the Radical Housing Journal, an open access transdisciplinary journal supporting the work of housing justice globally.

Adrienne Hall is a PhD student in Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her master’s degree in public health at San Francisco State University. Adrienne has been with the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project since 2016, and she is a co-editor of the Health and Environmental Justice chapter of the Atlas.

Campus Contributors:

The Science & Justice Research Center’s Just Biomedicine research cluster, overseen by Sociology Professor Jenny Reardon with Katherine Weatherford Darling (University of Maine), contributed a chapter titled: ‘Just Biomedicine on Third Street? Health and Wealth Inequities in San Francisco’s Biotech Hub.’ This chapter examines the different visions for health and healthcare that have been imagined and practiced along the Third Street corridor. At the north end stands Mission Bay, a newly revitalized neighborhood centered around UCSF’s biomedical campus and a biotechnology ecosystem. Just three miles south along Third Street, however, stands Bayview-Hunters Point, which remains one of the city’s most marginalized communities, home to a disproportionate disease burden and struggling public health clinics. This project brings into view for public discussion the effects of the resulting financial and ideological investments in an imagined “future of medicine,” and how they are changing the political landscapes, built environments, and health of Bay Area residents right now.

Undergraduate and Graduate Student Researchers and Alumni: Wessede Barrett (Politics), Dennis Browe (Sociology), Emily Caramelli (Sociology Politics), Amy Coffin (Neuroscience, Philosophy), Hannah Finegold (Biology, Law & Society), Laura Lopez, Emma Mitchell-Sparke (Tufts University), Andy Murray (Sociology), Nikobi Petronelli (Feminist Studies).

The Transportation, Infrastructure, and Economy contribution by Kristin Miller (Sociology). 

Kristin Miller is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at UC Santa Cruz with a Designated Emphasis in Film & Digital Media, and has an MA in Media, Culture, and Communication from NYU. Her research concerns the role of Silicon Valley futurism in reshaping the Bay Area, and she studies cities, environmentalism, and technology, with interests in science-fiction film and TV, and Utopian Studies.

The No Place Like Home project overseen by Sociology Professors Steve McKay and Miriam Greenberg contributed a visual summary and map from their large-scale study of the affordable housing crisis for Santa Cruz County tenants. The map helps amplify how the uneven geography and demography of the county is reflected in (and by) inequalities on critical issues such as rent burden, over-crowding, and forced moves and evictions. The survey results also provide a springboard for the study’s wider discussion of local and regional policy options in addressing the housing crisis, particularly for renters.

Hosted by:

University Relations

Co-Sponsored by:

The Science & Justice Research Center, The UC Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation, The Humanities Institute, the Genomics Institute, and departments of Sociology and Feminist Studies.

April 30, 2021 | Book Launch! How Green Became Good: Urbanized Nature and the Making of Cities and Citizens

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On Friday, April 30, 2021 from 12:00pm–1:00pm PDT, S&J affiliate and Assistant Professor of Sociology Hillary Angelo, joined in conversation with Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Neil Brenner, and Claudio Benzecry to discuss and celebrate the launch of her book, How Green Became Good:Urbanized Nature and the Making of Cities and Citizens.

The book is available at: The University of Chicago Press (use discount code UCPSOC for 20% off)

About the Book and Conversationalists

Abstract greens

Book Cover for Hillary Angelo’s How Green Became Good: Urbanized Nature and the Making of Cities and Citizens (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming 2021)

As projects like Manhattan’s High Line, Chicago’s 606, China’s eco-cities, and Ethiopia’s tree-planting efforts show, cities around the world are devoting serious resources to urban greening. Formerly neglected urban spaces and new high-end developments draw huge crowds thanks to the considerable efforts of city governments. But why are greening projects so widely taken up, and what good do they do? In How Green Became Good, Hillary Angelo uncovers the origins and meanings of the enduring appeal of urban green space, showing that city planners have long thought that creating green spaces would lead to social improvement. Turning to Germany’s Ruhr Valley (a region that, despite its ample open space, was “greened” with the addition of official parks and gardens), Angelo shows that greening is as much a social process as a physical one. She examines three moments in the Ruhr Valley’s urban history that inspired the creation of new green spaces: industrialization in the late nineteenth century, postwar democratic ideals of the 1960s, and industrial decline and economic renewal in the early 1990s. Across these distinct historical moments, Angelo shows that the impulse to bring nature into urban life has persistently arisen as a response to a host of social changes, and reveals an enduring conviction that green space will transform us into ideal inhabitants of ideal cities. Ultimately, however, she finds that the creation of urban green space is more about how we imagine social life than about the good it imparts. 

Hillary Angelo is Assistant Professor of Sociology and affiliated with the SJRC at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Claudio Benzecry is Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology (by courtesy) at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Opera Fanatic: Ethnography of an Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2011) and the author of The Perfect Fit: Creative Work in the Global Shoe Industry (forthcoming 2021).

Neil Brenner is the Lucy Flower Professor of Urban Sociology at the University of Chicago. His most recent books are New Urban Spaces: Urban Theory and the Scale Question (Oxford, 2019) and Critique of Urbanization: Selected Essays (Bauwelt Fundamente, 2016), as well as the edited volume Implosions/Explosions: Towards a Study of Planetary Urbanization (Jovis, 2014).

Robin Wagner-Pacifici is a University Professor affiliated with the Department of Sociology at The New School for Social Research. She is the author of a number of books, most recently What is an Event? (University of Chicago Press, 2017) and The Art of Surrender: Decomposing Sovereignty at Conflict’s End (2005).

Tamara Pico smiling at camera wearing a blue shirt

Meet new Science & Justice affiliate, Tamara Pico!

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Tamara Pico, Earth & Planetary Sciences

We are delighted to welcome our new Science & Justice affiliate, Tamara Pico! Dr. Pico is a postdoctoral scholar and incoming Assistant Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences who researches ice sheets, landscapes, and the social cultural histories of the geosciences. While completing her PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, she also focused on a secondary field in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, making her fit right into our culture here of fostering transdisciplinary conversations and projects centered around justice and the sciences.

At her Works-in-Progress talk on February 24, 2021, titled “Linking Past to Present in a Postcolonial Field Science: Towards Critical Studies in US Geology,” Dr. Pico discussed the ways in which scientific racism was embedded in 19th century early U.S. geology (during the founding of the discipline) and how many of these assumptions and practices continue to shape the culture and values of geoscience today. Beginning with the story of John Wesley Powell, who led the 1869 Powell Expedition—the first U.S. government-sponsored expedition through the Colorado River into the grand canyon—Dr. Pico described how racist ideologies shaped the work of major figures in the field. For example, Powell wrote about finding ways to prove the inferior, “barbaric” status of the Ute people inhabiting the canyonlands and indigenous peoples more broadly, and wrote government reports recommending Native American assimilation.

After offering further examples of the racist assumptions baked into the work of leading early geologists, Dr. Pico discussed how these assumptions motivated earth system studies — they are not peripheral to the field but have always been a core part of studying the earth system. She then asked: What parts of those practices from 19th century geology do geoscientists still have and use today? Through “Linking past to present in a postcolonial field science,” she discussed some ways these early frameworks of scientific racism still show up today: 1) through concepts of “the outdoors” and undergraduate recruitment; and 2) through the absence of historical knowledge of the field’s original links to racism, imperialism, and colonialism in standard undergraduate geology programs.

During the question & answer session, the conversation took a number of turns, illustrating the importance of beginning to build a historical knowledge base to educate those entering the discipline. Participants discussed geology’s understanding of and approach to climate change; the field’s deep ties to the oil industry; the literal clothes and outfits worn by geoscientists conducting fieldwork; and conducting research projects in conjunction with local communities as full research partners and beneficiaries of the knowledge created. The meeting ended with a  provocative question: to shift training practices in the geosciences, is it enough to simply include the racist and masculinist history of the field when teaching undergraduates, or might there be a need to more fundamentally shift geological and ontological ways of knowing the earth’s materiality and its systems? After the participants offered multiple perspectives on this question, Dr. Pico remarked that she is inspired by the many ways that people know and can sense the earth, which she believes that geologists are now starting to grapple with more seriously.

Dr. Pico is currently collaborating on a project related to training geoscientists: GeoContext