Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion

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Call to Action

“To elevate geosciences in diverse communities… create a welcoming community for all” — Statement of Purpose, Science and Society Section


AGU Science and Society (SY) section leadership strongly echo the sentiments of the AGU endorsed Call to Action: “Scientists should... act out against racism and police violence as a matter of basic humanity.” Going forward, we commit to explicitly building an anti-racist science community. We urge all Fall Meeting conveners to thoughtfully plan on integrating justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) into your sessions. Please use the JEDI Guide below.





Fall 2020 SY Social Science Session

JEDI Guide for Session Conveners

We, the Science and Society Executive Committee, strongly encourage session conveners to proactively promote justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) for the AGU Meeting, particularly at three times: (A) when inviting presenters, (B) when selecting oral and poster abstracts, and (C) when planning the session agenda. Based on Inclusive Scientific Meetings: Where to Start (Pendergrass et al 2019), we strongly suggest commiting to JEDI actions below with your planning team.

(A) June-July: When inviting presenters

  1. Commit to inviting diverse speakers, considering career stage, race, ethnicity, geography, primary language, gender identity, disability, etc.
  2. Schedule extra time to plan for and identify speakers, including meetings with potential invitees to explain the benefits. If unfamiliar with AGU, share this FAQ.
  3. Push yourself to look outside your immediate network. Consider people whose work you may have limited familiarity with.
  4. Identify missing voices and perspectives in the field.
  5. Contact different institutions (e.g., community colleges, Minority-Serving Institutions, disciplinary associations, think tanks).
    Include contributions beyond academia, such as public engagement, policymaking, mentoring, advancement of inclusivity, etc. 

(B) July-Aug: When selecting abstracts

  1. Develop evaluation criteria before reviewing abstracts for both oral and poster sessions.
  2. Include JEDI metrics in the evaluation criteria, e.g., social impact, community engagement, novel perspectives or approaches, advancing equity and justice, etc.
  3. Have more than one session convener evaluate the abstracts.
  4. Conduct a blind first-round evaluation without looking at abstract names and organizations, followed by a second round with JEDI considerations.
  5. Reflect on your own implicit biases.
  6. Evaluate whether the final list of presenters (for both oral and poster sessions) represent different voices and perspectives including (but not limited to) career stage, race, ethnicity, geography, gender, and other axes of identity.

(C) Aug-Dec: When planning the session agenda

  1. Prepare questions to ask presenters about JEDI considerations, for example:

    • How does (or could) your work incorporate JEDI? 

    • Who is involved? (e.g., Who is conducting the research? Who is the research being shared with? Which populations or locations are you working with? What communities are impacted by this work? 

    • Are there JEDI relevant data, literature, or experiences you are drawing from or that may be relevant to your work?

    • What are challenges in including JEDI considerations within your work or geosciences in general (e.g., working with social vulnerability data or engaging with marginalized communities)?

    • How can geoscientists (as individuals, as institutions, and as a community) do better in terms of integrating JEDI considerations in their research and workplace?

    • Do your learnings on JEDI translate to other countries’ contexts? When, where, and how? Are there different perspectives for looking at JEDI issues that we should consider as we move over country borders? How can we learn across regions on JEDI issues?

  2. Include underrepresented voices during Q&A

    • Make welcoming statements, especially about inclusion.

    • Verbally summarize AGU’s Code of Conduct.

    • Carefully consider who is chosen to ask the first question.

    • Be mindful of: Who are you focusing on? Are you leaving out unfamiliar or younger attendees, people whose names you cannot pronounce?

    • Based on Inclusive Scientific Meetings: Where to Start (pp. 10-11, Pendergrass et al 2019)

  3. Evaluate JEDI representation

    • Who is presenting?

    • Who is in the audience? Who is asking questions?

    • Are there key groups that we are missing?





Eos magazine cover Nov-Dec 2020

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