In Fall 2022, the group's focus centered on a more complete account of American history and how science is defined. We read and discussed two books together: Clint Smith's How the Word is Passed and Max Liboiron's Pollution is Colonialism.
- How the Word is Passed seeks out America's troubling history of white supremacy to understand the stories America tells itself about who we are through what is remembered. The aegis of the book is this: Smith traveled "to eight places in the United States as well as one abroad to understand how each reckons with its relationship to the history of American slavery."
- Pollution Is Colonialism presents a framework for understanding scientific research methods as practices that can align with or against colonialism. Even when researchers are working toward benevolent goals, environmental science and activism are often premised on a colonial worldview and access to land. Focusing on plastic pollution, the book models an anticolonial scientific practice aligned with Indigenous, particularly Métis, concepts of land, ethics, and relations.
Selected participants received two books and any subsequent readings, and received a $250 award for their full participation over the fall semester. Participants agreed to be responsible for reading all of the assigned materials, and must attend five planning and discussion sessions. Students applied to continue as a Social Justice Scholar in the Spring semester (with an additional stipend), which built upon the Fall semester learning with additional readings.
Meet our 2022-2023 Social Justice Scholars cohort!
Congratulations to the 13 selected Scholars: Andrew Chan, Margaret Coyle (not pictured), Katherine Barber, Kylie Farrell, Gloria Liu, Linus Mansour (not pictured), Amanda Martinez Moreno, Michelle Orioha, Kriti Shukla, Zachary Treseler, Kamarea Valentine, Paola Van der Linden Costello, Andromeda Vorndran