'Blackology': How can efforts around inclusivity in STEM fields go farther?

By Katie Pellico,

Published February 24, 2023 at 8:13 AM EST

Bobbi Wilson, her mother, and others look at a shadowbox full of butterfly specimens. — Bobbi Wilson was on the lookout for spotted lanternflies in her neighborhood, and well on her way to collecting some 27 of the invasive species, when she fielded a police complaint from a neighbor. The incident sparked national outrage over racial profiling. Since then, Bobbi’s collection of lanternflies has been admitted into the Peabody Museum of Natural History’s database, and in a January 20th ceremony, she was recognized as a “donor scientist” by the Yale School of Public Health.

Of the millions of people working in STEM fields in the U.S., only 9% are Black, according to the Pew Research Center. Those numbers are "unchanged" since 2016.

How can efforts around “inclusivity” in these fields go farther? Environmental scientist Dr. Nyeema Harris has written about the importance of Blackology.

“Blackologists are not simply scholars that are Black but, rather, are scholars who deliberately leverage and intersect Blackness into advancing knowledge production," she writes.

Dr. Harris joins us to discuss how this approach is applied to environmental science and so many other disciplines.

Plus, public health professor Dr. Ijeoma Opara discusses her work to reduce racial health disparities, and to "strengthen the pipeline of Black youth to the field of public health research."

GUESTS:

Dr. Ijeoma Opara: Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health; Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale School of Nursing
Dr. Nyeema Harris: Knobloch Family Associate Professor of Wildlife and Land Conservation, Yale School of the Environment

Where We Live is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!