Our world is diverse, but we need to acknowledge that many aspects of science are not diverse, equal or inclusive.
Acknowledging this issue is important, but doesn't have much impact. So we are committed to undertaking small actions that will build up to have larger impact.
Teaching
Teaching PLS100A Metabolism of cultivated plants has been fun as this upper-level class occurs at the right time to impact student career trajectories:
We have a 5 minute DEI component to every lecture aimed at helping all class members, that includes:
- career perspectives both university and non-university
- career preparation exercises
- land-grant relation to land acknowledgement
- and many other content items
We have created two useful resources:
- An action list for adding DEI to classroom teaching:
- A near-peer career panel recording for Plant Science Undergraduates: https://video.ucdavis.edu/media/Plant+Sciences+Career+Panel+2022/1_3bhuqueu
Mentoring / grad students
Matthew teaches PLS217 (Spring quarters) Field Techniques in Plant Physiology which is a hands-on lab-class focused on helping graduate students develop research methodologies.
Matthew teaches HRT200B (Spring 2023 onwards) a core HAGG course which focusses on cropping systems and improving student's ability to communicate.
Matthew is a long time graduate academic advisor for the GGHA and deal with DEI issues routinely.
2021-2023 Chair of the UC Davis Graduate Council Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Welfare Committee
General
Matthew is involved in the Plant Sciences DEI committee and the Teaching and Mentoring Working Group: https://deiplantsciences.ucdavis.edu
Matthew was long time organizer with Georgia Drakakaki of the Plant Sciences Winter Seminars and developed (2020-2022) a large DEI component to the topics, seminar speaker selection, and content. To learn, we asked each speaker to present how their research/institution does effective DEI activities.
Please contact Matthew if you would like to chat about these topics.