Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/02/2022
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Dr. Rodrigo Narro Perez – McMaster University

https://www.science.mcmaster.ca/ees/component/comprofiler/userprofile/narrora.html

Date: February 9th, 2022

Time: 3:30 PM

Title: Making the connections between Science and Race Visible

The academic western canon has instilled within scientists that “Science” and “Race” are separate, incompatible, and distinct. Scientific thought and the scientific method have taught scientists to be objective and ask ‘good research questions’. Yet science does not occur in a vacuum (well perhaps some science does); Science is part of this world. Scientists are part of this world. Scientists perform science within historical, societal, and power structures and that have created, and continue to maintain, inequities in all scientific disciplines. For Black, Indigenous, racialized, queer, trans, non-binary, disabled folks these inequities impeded them from pursuing the sciences and for those who do make it, they face these inequities daily. This has led for equitable representation of Black, Indigenous and racialized scientists in the physical sciences (e.g. physics, chemistry, geosciences) change very little in the last couple of decades. One step towards working towards equity can begin in the classroom.

 This talk will have two components. The first, Rodrigo will share his experiences as a geoscientist who is a racialized immigrant and how his journey made him ask ‘good questions’ when it came to race and equity in the sciences. This will be followed by exploring some of his research on how one could include anti-racist practices in a science undergraduate classroom. 

 Rodrigo Narro Pérez is a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Science and the Office of the Vice-Provost (Faculty). He recently finished his PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences where he researched glacial moraines in Perú and Iceland to better understand the impact of glacial lake outburst floods due to climate change. He has taught courses in the School of Earth, Environment and Society, School of Interdisciplinary Sciences, Office of Community Engagement and Intersession Learning. He is one of the current co-conveners for the Race, Racialization and Racism Working Group (R3) of McMaster’s President Advisory Committee for Building an Advisory Committee (PACBIC). In the community he is was recently as an inaugural Board of Director for Hamilton’s Anti-Racism Resource Centre (HARRC). He identifies as an interdisciplinary scholar that is now focusing on the connections between environmental and climate change education, Latin American/Latinx studies, and anti-racism, equity and science education.

Institution: McMaster University

Location: Zoom

Host: Dr. Robert Cockcroft