About Us: Diversify STEM Conferences (DSC) was created to address the wider issue of representation in STEM by focusing specifically on the diversity of speakers invited to give talks at conferences. Historically, the work of underrepresented/minoritized (URM) scientists has been overlooked and their contributions to science have been erased. We believe that the low numbers of URM speakers at conferences represents a continued disenfranchisement of minority communities from STEM and must be addressed. The importance of conferences in advancing STEM careers is well-known. They are critical times of collaboration, networking, and career advancement. Despite the importance of conferences to professional development, there are few data gathered regarding the representation of URM researchers at these events, though it is anecdotally evident that the numbers are far below ideal. We realize that organizing conferences is an involved, complicated process with many moving parts. We hope that the resources we provide will support the work that conference organizers are doing to increasing the diversity and inclusion of their conferences.
Mission: In order to work towards the larger goal of ending disparities in STEM, Diversify STEM Conferences (DSC) aims to ensure that URM speakers are proportionately represented at STEM conferences by: (1) providing the necessary resources for conference organizers to create more diverse and inclusive events, (2) tracking the representation of URM speakers at STEM conferences.
About our website: Thank you so much for visiting the DSC website! Before exploring our website we would like to bring a few things to your attention:
- Our website is constantly evolving to be up to date! Please feel free to leave us comments or suggestions on what we can improve or critiques if we’ve gotten something wrong.
- We try to be as inclusive as possible with everything we do, if you have questions about why we use certain terminology (i.e. Latinx, etc) please reference our Terminology page and/or reach out us with any comments, questions, or suggestions for improvement
- Along these lines, we realize that our website is not accessible to everyone and are working to make it more ADA compliant. If there are any web developers willing to help with this, please reach out to us.
- Our website focuses mainly on the representation of racial/ethnic groups, however we realize that there are barriers faced by other minoritized groups including the LGBTQ+ community, differently-abled persons, and women. We hope that those visiting our site will support these communities as well and have included links to resources supporting other underrepresented groups when possible.