Communicating whose science? Anti-racist scholarship in science communication
Recent years have seen a flurry of published research on equity, diversity and inclusion in the science communication discipline. Among other things, that scholarship has revealed profound cultures of exclusion in Western science communication institutions such as science centres and museums, particularly excluding people already socially marginalised by ‘race’ and class. It has shown that most published versions of science communication history are unreflectively Eurocentric, linking science communication to Western ways of doing knowledge, and ignoring past and present knowledge communication traditions from the world’s thousands of other cultures. And it highlights how the dominance of English as the global language of science excludes the many non-English-speaking scientists and publics from important global conversations about science, when speaking someone's language is fundamental to effective communication. In this seminar I will review this important emerging body of work, and how anti-racist science communicators across the globe are responding to it with recommendations for change and new directions in research and practice.

About the presenter
Dr Lindy Orthia is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the ANU School of Sociology. She previously worked as a science communication academic for over a decade, conducting research on many science communication topics including science communication histories and audience engagement with representations of science in popular fiction. All her work is underlain by an interest in the politics of knowledge, especially a fascination with the rhetorical power of Western science, and relationships between science and ideologies of oppression such as scientism, Eurocentrism and heteronormativity. Twitter: @lindyorthia, Website: lindyorthia.com.

Event details
11-12pm, Monday 19th April
Venue: Room 3.72, RSSS Building
Chair: Dr Maria Hynes (ANU Sociology )

https://anu.zoom.us/j/84480186643?pwd=a0s0SGF5eGlXQi8veWt1OVB2QlhUdz09
Meeting ID: 844 8018 6643
Password: 0000

Photo by Ousa Chea on Unsplash