Diversity Showcase
The Diversity Showcase is an initiative inspired by the Black Agenda from the Black Microbiologists Association. The Diversity Showcase is a document that promotes the work and mentorship of scientists from historically marginalized groups (HMGs) within the Phage’s community. This includes, but is not limited to attendees that are Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian/Pacific Islander/Desi, first-generation students, queer, disabled, neurodivergent, and/or women.
The goals of this document is two-fold – 1) it is intended to help the broader Phages community easily find, support, and promote the stellar work of scientists from our various marginalized communities; 2) it is intended to help attendees find other scientists from their own communities to off-set the isolation that many marginalized people feel within academia. In 2023, the Showcase promoted >70 people that ranged from undergraduate to faculty members. The Diversity Showcase has several sections that are described below. To register for the 2024 Diversity Showcase, please fill out the form at 2024 Phages Diversity Showcase Registration.
Presenters
Each participant receives their own entry in the Showcase. Each entry includes personal information (e.g. name, pronouns), professional information (e.g. job, university, lab), presentation information (e.g. presentation title, location, time), a space for them to talk about themselves and their passions, and the marginalized communities that they belonged to. Participants were also given the opportunity to include a picture and links to any of their social media.
Mentors
As marginalized people, we often don’t have mentors that share our identities and can teach us how to navigate academic spaces, or visible role models that occupy the positions that we are working towards. In the Showcase, we have a section dedicated to highlighting mentors within the Phages community that belong to HMGs to help trainees to see and connect with mentors that were like them and in these types of positions.
Professional Communities
The Diversity Showcase has a section dedicated to highlighting the different professional societies that cater to scientists from different HMGs. In 2023, we had pages for the Black Microbiologists Association, STEMNoire, Leading Edge, and the International Society for Nonbinary Scientists.
Voices of the Showcase
As marginalized people, our voices often go unheard or are outright dismissed. We want to give members of our community an outlet for their voices to be heard. As such, we will be adding in a new section tentatively titled “Voices of the Showcase”. Essentially, people can submit pieces of writing that discuss topics that are important to them (e.g. dealing with mental health and marginalization; barriers within academia; highlighting role models; discussing what made them feel like they belonged in academia; etc. We can even make the pieces anonymous, in case anyone is worried about potential backlash.
This is open to any and all members of the Showcase, from undergraduate to faculty. You can submit a piece even if you are not attending Phages this year. You’re always a member of this community, even if you’re not there in-person. There isn’t any sort of length requirement. If you’d like to write a piece, please fill out the form at Voices of the Diversity Showcase. We’d love for your voice to be heard! ❤️
Resource Guide
We will be compiling a guide with resources for dealing with the issues that we face as marginalized people in academia. For example, resources for dealing with workplace conflict and microaggressions, neurodivergent and disability resources, navigating academic spaces as a queer person, etc. If there are any resources that you love, please fill out the form at Diversity Showcase Resource Guide and we will begin assembling the resource guide.
Mixer
As marginalized people, conferences can sometimes feel incredibly isolating because you are suddenly in a new space and might not know how to find others within your community. In order to help combat this isolation, we are hosting a mixer for attendees from HMGs during the first late-night social hour of the conference. This includes, but it not limited to attendees that are Black, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander/Desi, first-generation students, queer, disabled, neurodivergent, and/or women. This initiative is dedicated to providing conference members from HMGs a safe and welcoming space to network and socialize with other scientists from their community. In 2023, we had >110 people attend the mixer and are excited for the second annual mixer this year. To register for this year’s mixer, please fill out the form at 2024 Phages Mixer Registration.
