In addition to diversifying our regular seminar series, this committee seeks to welcome social scientists and experts on anti-racism, so as to bring about an active conversation in the IREAP community on the topics of race, diversity, equity, and justice.
Through sensitivity training and workshops on educating our community on systemic injustice and implicit bias, we hope to help IREAP and UMD confront the racism that is built into the way academic institutions across the country work.
Each of our events will be generally centered around one of the following themes (though some events might blend themes!):
- Learn: These events will be mostly educational, presenting new information to attendees
- Reflect: These events will be mostly about introspection and sharing or personal thoughts and feelings
- Celebrate: These events will be centered on lifting and giving visibility to the accomplishments and contributions of people of color
- Discuss: These events will elicit thinking, processing, and sharing
- Debate: These events will provide a safe but brave platform to normalize conflict and embrace it as a tool for growth
We will also work to expand our reach to communities within neighboring areas. We recognize the privilege we have by being a part of an upstanding, flagship institution and want to strive to share our knowledge and resources with those around us.
Our initiatives work best when planned in conjunction with similar efforts across the University of Maryland. To this end, IREAP-ROLE will work with campus-wide bodies to not only better coordinate our efforts, but also to learn from each other.
We currently collaborate with the UMD Physics Climate Committee.
Want to collaborate? Let us know.
In order to ensure our efforts have impact, we will develop surveys, reports, and transparent records of our activities.
This section will soon be updated with a summary of racial justice and diversity surveys and town halls that were held in 2020.
We plan to build a collection of books on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in STEM. We want the people in our institute to have easy access to educational material so they may grow their awareness of social justice issues as their time permits.
If you would like to make a suggestion about a book we should add to our collection please reach out to us.