This week, the Ecological Society of America highlights the contributions of Black scholars to 21st-century ecology in a virtual collection of papers: “Advancing ecology through Black voices.”
The authors of the articles in the virtual collection address the exclusionary history of the natural sciences, explore ideologies that perpetuate disparities in environmental engagement, and confront public health injustices that have harmed communities of color.
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The idea for the collection sprang from ESA’s Black Ecologists Section, with members seeking to promote the contributions of Black Ecologists to the discipline. “This initiative stemmed from my time as co-chair of the Black Ecologist Section, as we brainstormed on how to elevate our contributions to the rapidly expanding and increasingly relevant field of ecology in society,” said Nyeema Harris, PhD, an associate professor of wildlife and land conservation at Yale University.
“We recognized that by combating the historic erasure of Black scholars and disciplinary whitewashing, we could build a more inclusive community of a practice. These efforts also highlighted that our identities directly influence our scholarship and that warrants explicit celebration,” Harris said. “So, this collection is a triumphant union of past, present, and future; acknowledgement of foundational principles that get scrutinized in new ways; contemporary Black thought-leaders melding theories and approaches to advance ecology and the future outcomes resultant for our innovations.”
The collection features papers published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and Ecological Applications. All of the articles in the collection are open access and have been published under Creative Commons licenses.
- This press release was originally published on the Ecological Society of America website
