Racial Equity: Immersive, Interdisciplinary, Identity-based Team Science Experiences for Indigenous Graduate Scholars

Racial Equity: Immersive, Interdisciplinary, Identity-based Team Science Experiences for Indigenous Graduate Scholars Racial Equity: Immersive, Interdisciplinary, Identity-based Team Science Experiences for Indigenous Graduate Scholars The current societal moment has laid bare structural racism, inequity, and injustice within the academy. In particular, the system for graduate education in STEM is antiquated and does not foster an environment for Indigenous scholars to thrive. To address this problem, diverse identities, critical scholarship, sovereignty and self-determination must be centered. Transformation of graduate STEM education to promote Indigenous scholarship will require change across the entire academic community, including faculty, degree programs, and research agendas. We propose re-imagining the structure and outcomes of STEM research at the graduate level, by providing Immersive, Interdisciplinary, Identity-based Team Science Experiences (IIITSEs) at Arizona State University, hosted by the Earth System Science for the Anthropocene (ESSA) graduate student network. These collaborative, culturally affirming, and solutions-oriented research projects will center diverse knowledge systems to respond to community needs, support cohorts of racially diverse faculty and students, and promote a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive campus and community.