Equity and Justice

This page was previously named "Diversity and Inclusivity Initiatives". But after seeing the following quote, I realize that "Equity and Justice" should be the real goal for all these endeavors. 

" Diversity and inclusion rhetoric asks fundamentally different questions and is concerned with fundamentally different issues than efforts seeking equity and justice.

• Diversity asks, “Who’s in the room?” Equity responds: “Who is trying to get in the room but can’t? Whose presence in the room is under constant threat of erasure?”
• Inclusion asks, “Has everyone’s ideas been heard?” Justice responds, “Whose ideas won’t be taken as seriously because they aren’t in the majority?”
• Diversity asks, “How many more of [pick any minoritized identity] group do we have this year than last?” Equity responds, “What conditions have we created that maintain certain groups as the perpetual majority here?”
• Inclusion asks, “Is this environment safe for everyone to feel like they belong?” Justice challenges, “Whose safety is being sacrificed and minimized to allow others to be comfortable maintaining dehumanizing views?
                                            --Dafina-Lazarus Stewart”
  
  

Over the time of my PhD, motivated by absolute necessity -- because otherwise I could not get math done and I could not reconcile with my identity as a mathematician -- I started the following initiatives, to make an epsilon step towards making the mathematical community a more connected one. Feel free to reach out if you want to know more about any of these initiatives. I am more than happy to share with you the organizing experience, especially if you want to start something similar at your local institution too!
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• The Horizons Seminar: 
  I am one of the co-founders and the lead student organizer of the Horizons Seminar at Brown University, an out-of-the-box seminar started in 2016 in the math department dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusivity in STEM fields.
  
  
• ​Graduate Ambassador  for WAM: 
  In 2017, I was awarded the Graduate Ambassadorship by the IAS (Institute of Advanced Studies) Women and Mathematics program to build a support structure for undergraduate math majors at Brown. For my initiative, I founded and co-organized the Horizons Reading Group, which focuses on investigating and reflecting on the social impact of mathematical research.
  In 2017 fall,  we meet every two weeks in B&H 160 to discuss chapters from Cathy O'Neil's book "Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy". 
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• Peer Mentoring Network: 
  I have been a graduate mentor at the Peer Mentoring Network since 2016.  Every semester, I am paired up with 1-2 undergraduate women at Brown majoring in math, math-CS, or math-econ, and provide support and counsel as needed. 
  
  
• Summer@ICERM Diversity Panels: 
  In  2017, while TAing for Summer@ICERM (an 8-week undergraduate summer research program), I co-organized two panels on women and other underrepresented groups in mathematics.  Researchers from over 12 institutions around the world participated in these panels to provide career advice and encouragement for Summer@ICERM participants. 
  In 2018, I co-organized another "Conversation on Equity and Justice" with my fellow TA Marissa Loving for the Summer@ICERM participants. 

Groups

• ​I am a member of the Rose Whelan Society. ​​
• I am a member of AMS (American Mathematical Society) and the SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applies Mathematics) student chapter at Brown.