FUTURE Action Plan in Support of UCD's Black PhD Students and Postdocs
You can read the plan and more about FUTURE on their website
We recognize that anti-Black racism has shaped the systems we learn and work in. We know that the transition from training to career is a high-stakes moment and that much advice for this moment assumes a particularly privileged subject: white, and also cis, straight, non-disabled, non-primary-caregiver, etc.
As Professor Jasmine Roberts and many others have showed us, we need to do better (1).
As a career exploration program, we must work to mitigate the isolating and confidence-eroding effects of these systems faced by the Black researchers-in-training at UC Davis and also to amplify Black researchers’ career achievements in all fields and sectors. We plan to mobilize our program resources to this work, specifically our spaces, networks, expertise, and access to decision makers in our field.
Supporting the Black members of our program’s community is central to the relevance and accessibility of our program, and we have incorporated this work into FUTURE’s 2020-21 Strategic Plan. But confronting anti-Black racism in our context is not a one-year project, but a much longer process in which we will continually revise our plan and publish new actions each year.
PUBLIC PLAN:
- Consult with our Black membership about their experience in our program and their needs/vision
- Grow our partner network to include and amplify more Black professionals
- Offer personal connections from among our own professional relationships
- Offer partnership to the organizations that are already serving Black researchers-in-training at UC Davis: a) amplifying their programing through our platforms and collaboration and b) making membership in the FUTURE program more visible and welcoming to their constituents c) demonstrating how our resources (partner network, staff expertise, etc.) might be useful to their constituents beyond those involved in health-related research
- Tune our mentorship program to better address issues of race, identity, and work
- Include persistent links to national reporting structures to address the discrimination and harassment that disproportionately affect Black researchers in the Digest
_____________________
(1)Roberts, Jasmine. "White Academia: Do Better. Higher education has a problem. It’s called White supremacy." Medium.com/TheFaculty, 8 June 2020. Web. 14 July 2020.
