2021 Inclusive SciComm Symposium

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2021 Inclusive SciComm Symposium

The 2021 Inclusive SciComm Symposium will be held virtually, October 14-16.

By University of Rhode Island Metcalf Institute

Date and time

October 14, 2021 · 9am - October 16, 2021 · 2pm PDT

Location

Online

Refund Policy

Refunds up to 7 days before event
Eventbrite's fee is nonrefundable.

About this event

The Inclusive SciComm Symposium aims to convene science communication (SciComm) practitioners, scholars, and educators working across many disciplines, sectors, methods, settings, and topics to discuss practical approaches for advancing inclusive approaches to SciComm and public engagement. The symposium defines SciComm in its broadest sense, as any information exchange designed to engage specific audiences in conversations or activities related to science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or medicine (STEMM).

Inclusive SciComm comprises varied perspectives, including community engagement, informal science learning, arts, community organizing, journalism, community-based participatory research, inclusive pedagogy, service learning, library science, and many others. The purpose of the Inclusive SciComm Symposium is to build a community that actively challenges the dominant norms of STEMM and deficit-oriented approaches to communication culture, and promotes science communication that values individual and group assets, especially those of typically marginalized groups. Through these transformations, the Inclusive SciComm community will reimagine and change how science is conducted and discussed.

Practical approaches to inclusive SciComm are particularly important given the pandemic and ongoing, structural inequities. These overlapping events and experiences have highlighted the urgent need for action. We need strategies for putting intentionality, reciprocity, and reflexivity – the key traits of inclusive science communication – into practice. Science communication is continually and rapidly changing; therefore, we must be aware of our intent and impact as we communicate, educate, and research.

This event is one piece of a much broader movement. Join us!

Registration Pricing (this includes full access to all three days of the Symposium):

  • Students: Free
  • Postdoctoral Scholars: $50
  • Professionals: $200
  • Exhibit Booth: $105 (add-on)

If you cannot afford the registration fee, please enter promo code FREE when prompted in the registration process. This will provide a 100% discount on the registration price.

Alternatively, if you would like to sponsor another attendee, please contact Metcalf Institute.

Registrants may choose to purchase an exhibit booth for the 2021 Inclusive SciComm Symposium as part of registration for an additional fee of $105. Symposium organizers will be in touch to confirm access to your exhibitor space and the Exhibitor Center by September 20 so you can begin building your booth. Booth hosts can upload digital content as well as header, logo, background, a description blurb, your URL, and social links. The symposium Exhibitor Center on the virtual platform is where exhibitors can manage meetings with attendees (if desired) and see booth analytics. Your booth will remain on the 2021 ISCS platform and accessible to registrants until either you remove it or the platform is disassembled by the organizers. See more detail on exhibit booths here.

Accessibility

The Symposium aims to meaningfully include:

  • Disabled attendees with visual, oral, cognitive, or motor impairments that affect how they interface with computers, pre-conference content, and digital conference platforms;
  • Attendees with caregiving responsibilities;
  • Attendees in different time zones; and
  • Attendees without material institutional support (i.e., funding).

The Symposium will have ASL interpreters and live captioning for keynote talks and automated captioning at all events. As part of the registration process, you will be asked to indicate whether you need ASL interpreting and/or live captioning to maximize your participation in the conference.

In order to arrange for all necessary accommodations, please make all of your accessibility requests by registering for the conference by September 23, 2021. If you have any questions about this, contact Katharine McDuffie at Metcalf Institute.

All speakers are expected to make their presentations as accessible as possible. This includes speaker-provided closed captioning for pre-recorded lightning talks, verbal descriptions of images during presentations, and a high-contrast color scheme for slides. For more information on how to make your presentation accessible, see the excellent guidance provided by Composing Access. Speakers will be provided with additional guidance.

A tip sheet will be available for all Symposium participants in advance to explain the use of our conference platform, Swapcard, to ensure the most beneficial experience.

Symposium programming will begin at 1:00 p.m. and conclude by 5:00 p.m. EDT to make the timing more manageable for attendees across time zones. Unless requested by session organizers, all sessions will be recorded and archived on the Symposium platform for at least two months. After that, recordings will be posted on the Metcalf Institute YouTube channel and https://inclusivescicomm.org.

*We have gratefully borrowed much of the language above from the guidance written by Dr. Lauren Cagle for the ARSTM@NCA 2020 Virtual Pre-Conference on Social Justice.

Thank you to our generous sponsors!

  • Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation
  • Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
  • The Kavli Foundation
  • Rita Allen Foundation
  • University of Rhode Island Division of Research and Economic Development
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
  • Schmidt Ocean Institute
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics, & Religion
  • University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography
  • Union of Concerned Scientists
  • Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Communicating Science, Health, Environment & Risk Division
  • University of Rhode Island Office of Community, Equity and Diversity
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