In conjunction with the Microbes and Social Equity virtual symposium being held in July, I will be piloting a special topics graduate course called AVS 590: Research skills combining microbes and social equity. Information about enrollment can be found through the UMaine Summer University program.

The symposium will convene researchers from different disciplines, foci, and geographic locations, and fosters in-depth conversations and research skills development. It is an ideal venue for training graduate students and incubating their burgeoning ideas. Thus, students in the class will attend the symposium, engage in conversations before and after attending sessions to reflect on how our perspectives changed, and create written assignments that will receive peer and instructor feedback. If the course is successful, I hope to add additional instructors and enrollment, we will expand the course and host it again each year we host the symposium.