Tag: diversity

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Read Academy Establishes Representation and Inclusion Standards for Oscars® Eligibility (Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars® eligibility in the Best Picture category, as part of its Academy Aperture...
Long overdue and could have been an even higher bar, particularly on the studio side.
Read 'Bookmarks' Series from Netflix Spotlights the Black Experience (PublishersWeekly.com)
Streaming entertainment service Netflix has announced the September 1 launch of 'Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices,' a collection of 12 five-minute episodes featuring Black celebrities and artists reading aloud children's books by Black authors.
Read Open Letter to the Gatsby Open Source Community by Kyle MathewsKyle Mathews (Gatsby)
Gatsby is a React-based open source framework with performance, scalability and security built-in. Collaborate, build and deploy 1000x faster with Gatsby Cloud.
Given the accusations and specifics that prompted this letter, it definitely comes off as disingenuous and fake corporate speak. I don’t want to touch the platform with a 10 foot pole… He addresses some of the controversy, but doesn’t actually indicate any actual plan for change.
Read Scientists Call for Academic Shutdown in Support of Black Lives (Gizmodo)
White supremacy is baked into science and academia, from racist language in textbooks to a culture that excludes Black scientists from innovating and advancing at the same pace as their colleagues. But rather than more milquetoast statements and diversity initiatives, researchers want action. Organizers are asking the scientific community to participate in a work stoppage on Wednesday, June 10 to bring attention to racism in the world of research.
Read Here are four things that you can do to de-colonize your bookshelf this year: by Ally HennyAlly Henny (facebook.com)

• Add books written by black, brown, and indigenous people. Try to add at least one book from an author of color for every book written by a White person that you buy this year.

• Purge books that are racist or written by problematic authors. The goal isn’t to run away from alternative viewpoints or ideas with which we disagree, but these should not be the dominant voices in your library. There are some beloved works that are racist trash and belong in university libraries (where they can be studied for the trash that they are) and not in our personal collections.

• Don’t pigeonhole authors of color. Black, brown, and indigenous people can do more than talk about race...pick books from your favorite genre written by authors of color.

• Don’t hold authors of color to a higher standard. Not every book written by a black, brown, or indigenous author will automatically be great and that’s 100% okay. If you have mediocre or crappy books written by white authors, you can also have some mediocre books from people of color on your shelves, too.

Read - Want to Read: Written/Unwritten by Patricia A. Matthew (University of North Carolina Press)

The academy may claim to seek and value diversity in its professoriate, but reports from faculty of color around the country make clear that departments and administrators discriminate in ways that range from unintentional to malignant. Stories abound of scholars--despite impressive records of publication, excellent teaching evaluations, and exemplary service to their universities--struggling on the tenure track. These stories, however, are rarely shared for public consumption. Written/Unwritten reveals that faculty of color often face two sets of rules when applying for reappointment, tenure, and promotion: those made explicit in handbooks and faculty orientations or determined by union contracts and those that operate beneath the surface. It is this second, unwritten set of rules that disproportionally affects faculty who are hired to "diversify" academic departments and then expected to meet ever-shifting requirements set by tenured colleagues and administrators. Patricia A. Matthew and her contributors reveal how these implicit processes undermine the quality of research and teaching in American colleges and universities. They also show what is possible when universities persist in their efforts to create a diverse and more equitable professorate. These narratives hold the academy accountable while providing a pragmatic view about how it might improve itself and how that improvement can extend to academic culture at large. 

The contributors and interviewees are Ariana E. Alexander, Marlon M. Bailey, Houston A. Baker Jr., Dionne Bensonsmith, Leslie Bow, Angie Chabram, Andreana Clay, Jane Chin Davidson, April L. Few-Demo, Eric Anthony Grollman, Carmen V. Harris, Rashida L. Harrison, Ayanna Jackson-Fowler, Roshanak Kheshti, Patricia A. Matthew, Fred Piercy, Deepa S. Reddy, Lisa Sánchez González, Wilson Santos, Sarita Echavez See, Andrew J. Stremmel, Cheryl A. Wall, E. Frances White, Jennifer D. Williams, and Doctoral Candidate X.

Read 'American Dirt' was supposed to be a publishing triumph. What went wrong? by Daniel Hernandez (Los Angeles Times)
Celebrities endorsed 'American Dirt' — then the reactions on Twitter turned negative. Cries of appropriation — and barb-wire dinner pieces — spark scorn for book
Certainly an interesting controversy to watch. This is also uncovering a lot of fluff promotional material by people who are endorsing books without having read or even vaguely vetted them. The upshot seems to be never to trust blurbs or reviews by famous people.
Read Against “Excellence” by Briallen Hopper (Avidly | Los Angeles Review of Books)
Harvard just denied tenure to an award-winning Latinx scholar and teacher who is working in the field of Latinx studies. (Yale did the same thing last year.) Thousands of students and scholars have already signed an open letter in protest. There is so much to say, and so much already eloquently being said, about the ways that, over and over and over, elite universities fail to support people of color and the fields of knowledge that center them. These repeated failures to recognize excellence in non-white forms demonstrate the systemic racism that pervades these institutions

Reflections on WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley 2019

I really had a grand time at WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley yesterday. I’d like to thank the visionary Joe Simpson, Jr. and his entire group of fantastic organizers and kind volunteers for putting the entire thing together. I couldn’t imagine a better launch for a brand new camp.

College of the Canyons was a fantastic location for the camp and even had some excellent outdoor patio and dining space for lunch.

I do wish I’d been able to make my schedule work out to have been able to attend on Friday. I’m particularly bummed that I didn’t get to see Glenn Zucman’s presentation as he’s always doing some of the most interesting and creative things with WordPress. I’ll wait patiently for WordPress.tv to deliver it for me.

Some of my favorite highlights:

  • David Nuon wearing a blonde Richard Dean Anderson wig during his talk MacGyver plays with blocks: Using the Gutenberg editor in new and surprising ways
  • Chatting with Kat Christofer of Woo Commerce about how she and the Woo team create better documentation for their product. I think there’s some things we can learn for documenting pieces of the IndieWeb experience with WordPress. She also mentioned the beginning of a new short Mustang road trip.
  • Joseph Dickson going old school on Upgrading Kubrick for Gutenberg. His highlighting the fact that the editor is able to better mirror the ultimate output as a time saver is an intriguing idea.
  • Not that they aren’t always in general, and I didn’t think about it until reflecting on it today, but I also want to mention the spectacular diversity of speakers and attendees at the camp. It really made for a better and more well-rounded experience. I’ll give all the credit to Joe and his team who I suspect are directly responsible for designing it to be that way from the very beginning.

On a more personal level, my two favorite parts included:  Seeing the viceral reactions of a handful of people as the proverbial light switch was turned on when they realized the power and flexibility of the posting interfaces provided by micropub clients during my talk. There was also a palpable rush at the end while using a few minutes of extra time demoing some examples of my website and and the power of Micropub, Webmention, and backfeed along with some other IndieWeb goodness. I’ve already had a number of people following up with additional questions, conversations, and emails.

For those who may have missed them, here is a link to my slides from the Micropub and WordPress talk and a link to some of the bigger pieces I’ve wrtitten about with respect to WordPress and IndieWeb technologies in the past. Naturally, these are only a supplement to the hundreds of others who are working in and documenting the space. 

I’ll also give a special thanks to Joseph Dickson for the photo/tweet of me just before the talk:

The metal and glass edifice framed by the blue sky of the Santa Clarita Valley
Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center on the campus of College of the Canyons
Tables and chairs in foreground with campers chatting in middle ground and the impressive glass wall of the center in the background
Inside the Hook University Center where WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley 2019 was held
Clear signage directs pedestrians to WordCamp Santa Clarita at Hook University Center
Clear signage directs pedestrians to WordCamp Santa Clarita at Hook University Center
My name tag as a speaker at WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley
The front entrance of Brewery Draconum
The afterparty for WordCamp Santa Clarita was held at Draconum in Newhall
Long picnic tables and red umbrellas provided some great ambience with the sun shining brightly in the late afternoon
WordCampers from Santa Clarita gathering on the outdoor patio at Draconum

A selfie by Chris Aldrich with other campers in the background
Hanging out with old friends and new after WordCamp on the patio at Draconum.
Joseph Dixon, Erik Blair

👓 A Room of One’s Own White Colleagues | Diverse Education

Read A Room of One’s Own White Colleagues by (Diverse)
Every spring, I dread putting together my annual review materials. In March, a predominantly White room full of senior colleagues will discuss whether I meet th
He doesn’t even mention all the additional heavy mentoring work that he likely does for other minorities, POC, etc. which go above and beyond what his white colleagues are doing.

A Room of One’s Own White Colleagues  ❧

Subtle hat tip to Virginia Woolf.

March 19, 2019 at 03:02PM