I’m delighted to announce the public release of a white paper on queer- and trans-inclusive faculty hiring practices, and a perspective piece introducing it!! This is the culmination of months of writing by an international group of talented scientists led by Dr. JL Weissman, and I was honored to participate in these and future efforts from the group.

The newly-formed group, Advancing Queer and Trans Equity in Science (AQTES), wants to improve the field of research by making the hiring process fair and welcoming for everyone. No matter what your personal identity is, we can all agree that fair and unbiased job searches are critical to hiring the best talent. But, sometimes a poorly-organized job search prevents the people with the best talent from applying at all.

In our white paper, we give suggestions on how to host a job search that is better for everyone. We provide examples and advice on how to write job adverts, create the agenda and atmosphere for the job search, how to make the interview process more accessible for everyone by remembering that we are humans and not robots, and how to support your new faculty.

Running a queer- and trans-inclusive faculty hiring process.

Authors

Weissman, JL, Chappell, C.R., Rodrigues de Oliveira, B.F., Evans, N., Fagre, A.C., Forsythe, D.,  Frese, S.A., Gregor, R., Ishaq, S.L., Johnston, J., Bittu, K.R., Matsuda, S.B., McCarren, S., Ortiz Alvarez de la Campa, M., Roepkw, T.A., Sinnott-Armstrong, N., Stobie, C.S., Talluto, L., Vargas-Muñiz, J., Advancing Queer and Trans Equity in Science (AQTES).

Abstract

Queer and transgender scientists face documented systemic challenges across the sciences, and therefore have a higher attrition rate than their peers. Recent calls for change within science have emphasized the importance of addressing barriers to the success and retention of queer and trans scientists to create a more inclusive, equitable, and just scientific establishment. Crucially, we note these calls come primarily from early career researchers; relatively few queer and trans scientists have passed through the gauntlet of the faculty job search to become faculty ourselves, which is typically key to long-term persistence in academia. Our lack of representation creates a self-reinforcing cycle in which queer and trans trainees do not see our needs considered in established processes and power structures. Moreover, this status quo has historically been and continues to be harmful, disproportionately impacting those of us who have multiple intersecting marginalized identities. Here, we provide concrete guidance to search committees to support queer and trans candidates throughout the faculty selection process based on our personal experiences as early career scientists who have been on the job market.

Graphics in the post and the article created by Callie R. Chappell.

Citations

Citation for the paper: Weissman, JL, Chappell, C.R., Rodrigues de Oliveira, B.F., Evans, N., Fagre, A.C., Forsythe, D.,  Frese, S.A., Gregor, R., Ishaq, S.L., Johnston, J., Bittu, K.R., Matsuda, S.B., McCarren, S., Ortiz Alvarez de la Campa, M., Roepkw, T.A., Sinnott-Armstrong, N., Stobie, C.S., Talluto, L., Vargas-Muñiz, J., Advancing Queer and Trans Equity in Science (AQTES). 2024. Running a queer- and trans-inclusive faculty hiring process. EcoEvoRvix repository 6791.

Perspective piece introducing the paper:  Weissman JL, Chappell CR, Francesco Rodrigues de Oliveira B, Evans N, Fagre AC, Forsythe D, et al. (2024) Queer- and trans-inclusive faculty hiring—A call for change. PLoS Biol 22(11): e3002919.

This work is being presented at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in Washington DC in December, in the session on “ED12A: Advances and Progress Toward a More Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, and Accessible Scientific Community II”.

This work is being presented as a seminar at the Microbes and Social Equity working group virtual seminar series, Dec 20th, 2024. Registration is free but required.