Current research on almond bud development. Ongoing interdisciplinary research on carob (Ceratonia siliqua). Disabled. Advocate for accessibility. she/her
Banner description: Carob botanical illustration by Pierre Joseph Redouté Profile photo description: Me looking over my bifocal glasses. #NoBot #Disability #Distodon #Accessibility #SciComm #Biology #Botany #PlantScience #Cycling
When I was filling out a form to expedite how my acct gets turned over at the end of this quarter (my last), they offered various academic and professional suffix choices.
I just earned a MSc.
It wasn't on the list. But Masters of Education, Masters of Public Health, and Masters of Engineering were.
Surprisingly, I didn't see MBA on there.
Anyway, it's interesting what is considered worthy of a suffix or not. @academicchatter
@stephanie I love germplasm repositories!
I won't be able to kick off work on this until I'm settled in across the ocean, but I've long said that building an academic biology (esp the non-human parts of biology) community here is going to take work.
To that end, who's up for designing and running an accessible online academic conference a la Biotweeps, but using Fediverse tools and innovating formats that fit those tools?
Speak up in the replies, please.
"Senate Bill 829 (Wiener, 2025), which proposes to create the California Institute for Scientific Research within the Government Operations Agency to award grants and make loans to public or private research companies, universities, institutes, and health care organizations in the State of California for scientific research and development. "
"Hitler and Stalin Today: Timothy Snyder’s new U of T course explores legacy of authoritarian regimes"
He has an interesting answer to why he's teaching a large class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46Yoe4SIXc #History #Authoritarianism #Fascism
Serviceberry chocolate.
Serviceberry aka saskatoon aka Amelanchier
@jmeowmeow They're all resisting it. And when they finally do it, accessibility for disabled people will not be the motivation...most abled people don't care.
As usual, it'll be whenever enough hegemons need it or it's a cause they care about.
So I *want* to be there and am making a positive effort to attend, even though less effort is put into making me feel welcome as an attendee.
I also pay attention and ask questions or make comments (about the subject matter). I'm not taking a "lazier" route to seminar attendance & participation.
There is a tendency to place a value on how people are attending. As if the people who attended bodily put more effort in and are paying greater attention. First of all, these seminars constantly have free food & drink...because they feel they have to bribe people to attend in person. I attended and always have without a bribe.
I am in a different country, doing other things. I had to remember the event was happening, schedule it for myself, troubleshoot constant Zoom issues, and log in.
There are many good reasons to hold hybrid or entirely online events: pandemic, reducing global warming gas emissions, political instability (regimes that attack people from other countries wanting to attend or politicizing who people *are*), accessibility to people with some disabilities, flexibility, etc.
I made comments and asked questions, but I noticed the reaction to them was different than those made by people attending in person.
This is something people and institutions have to get on top of. You shouldn't treat online attendees as lesser than those in person, even if it's unconscious. We have to undo the training that encourages us to do that.
As usual, it was a great presentation. Lots of scattershot coverage of projects his students have worked on as well as ones he's been doing on his own.
Watching a seminar over Zoom. Something I was refused credit for as a disabled Masters student at UC. Somehow being on Zoom meant I wasn't "working" like the students who are lured with free pizza to attend in person.
Haven't been able to attend for months due to a labor-intensive & stressful move out of the country.
I always enjoy Dr. Matthew Gilbert's presentations.
https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/events/wednesday-seminar-matthew-edmund-gilbert
Forwarding from a campus list (with permission).
"Good afternoon,
I am a graduate student in Community Development and am conducting a study on gender and transportation experiences. Everyone is welcome to participate, but input is especially encouraged from women, non-binary people, and transgender people of all gender identities. If selected for a follow-up interview, I may contact you at the email address you provided."
@neuralreckoning Dismantling systemic oppression is work, for sure. But it's worthy work.
And while people love to think of disabled people as rare outsiders, I think you'll find that many folks like the accessibility improvements. Abled people who are not working in their mother tongue appreciate captions and transcripts, for example. Abled parents appreciate flexibility.
Any improvement you make to the usual inaccessible status quo is an improvement on what would have been.
@neuralreckoning The first thing is to involve diversely disabled people in the planning...better than any checklist. So poll among your field and find the diasbled folks in your field. If they're not there already, that's definitely something to work on.
Make sure the planning mtgs are accessible in order for disabled folks to attend, then disabled folks help with making the conference itself accessible.
I've written stuff, but sadly in the form of Twitter threads that are now gone.
Going through a very long list of old bookmarks and found @neuralreckoning 's guide to running a (particular) online conference that can be generalized to others, probably.
I'd add the amendment that step 2 or even 1 should be "What do I need to do to plan this accessibly and make the event accessible?"
"We still have $219,000 to go by June 30. If you haven’t contributed yet, I urge you to give today and share our story with your networks."
https://www.givecampus.com/schools/UniversityofCaliforniaRiverside/help-preserve-the-california-digital-newspaper-collection @academicchatter #Archives #Newspapers #Research #Media #Journalism
A man chopped down Los Angeles trees. The crime cut deep in the struggling neighborhood