Dean’s Inclusive Excellence Seminar Series
The CALS Dean’s Inclusive Excellence Seminar Series highlights academic excellence through inclusive science and creates a platform for extended discussions on how our science can and should be transformative in leading to best practices and policies that support social, economic, environmental and climate justice.
See below for more information about future and past seminars. All events are open to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences community. Videos will be added to each event page as they become available with the permission of the speaker. If you are interested in developing a program for this series, contact your department or unit's Leader for Diversity and Inclusion.
In Spring 2022, the seminar series will focus on science-based solutions to grand challenges in equity and inclusion. Speakers will demonstrate interdisciplinary scholarship and translational research that centers equity, inclusion and justice by explicitly addressing systemic challenges facing historically and habitually marginalized and disadvantaged communities. Demonstrating engagement and evidence-based approaches, the seminars highlight scientific advances in topics including climate and environmental justice; social and socio-economic system resilience under globalization and technological change; health equity; disparities in access/use/representation in media and communication technologies; food security and production; agricultural, natural resource, land, and water (dis)possession and management; improving urban landscapes and ecosystems; and access, equity, and inclusion in the realm of artificial intelligence, big data, computational biology and/or the basic life sciences.
Come join us in celebrating this inspirational group of scholars whose work aligns basic breakthroughs with translational approaches for local-to-global impact.
Seminar List
In this talk, Hale Tufan, Ph.D., will describe three research areas aiming to guide agricultural research processes and outputs to positively contribute to gender equality and social inclusion. 3/9 @ Noon ET
In this talk, Chase Mendenhall, Ph.D., will introduce the stakeholders and science of Queer Biology and Countryside Biogeography, exploring their roles in building an LGBTQ+ inclusive evolutionary narrative and guiding conservation investments in rural Latinx communities. 3/8 @ 3:30 p.m. ET
In this talk, Aidee Guzman, Ph.D., will present her research on how on-farm diversification in an intensively managed landscape can bolster below- to above-ground biodiversity and their interactions on agroecosystems. 3/7 @ noon ET
In three vignettes, Steven Johnson, Ph.D., will describe a way to design and establish climate cooperatives – sets of nations that share similar ocean environments separated by time.
This talk by Shauna Downs, Ph.D., will focus on three main areas of research aimed at providing solutions to increase the availability, affordability, and acceptability of healthy foods produced by sustainable food systems.
In this talk, Francisca (Kika) Santana will discuss how different social processes – social norms, social support, and place attachment – shape the ways that individuals respond to threats and changes in their biophysical environment.
In this talk, Amber M. Hamilton draws on 24 months of digital ethnographic fieldwork within Black Twitter to define a theory of "doing race" in the digital sphere.
Building upon work in critical development studies, agrarian political ecology and postcolonial thought, this talk from Kevon Rhiney, Ph.D., explores the ways vulnerable communities in the Caribbean are negotiating the intersecting crises of global environmental and economic change.
In this talk, Rori Rohlfs Ph.D. will discuss analyses based on publicly available population genetic data regarding the lack of the quantified accuracy of emerging forensic genetic technologies, particularly in light of population genetic variation, and clarity on what (if any) medical information could be revealed through forensic genetic profiles.
Kelsey Leonard, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate, and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo.
In this talk, Shaila Musharoff, Ph.D. will present two computational approaches to model ancestry, both as a confounder and as a source of trait-relevant information.
In this talk, Chelsea Peterson-Salahuddin will explore the inclusive and innovative ways Black women and femmes use digital technologies to produce "intersectional journalism," a journalistic practice that actively engages intersectional frameworks and Black feminist praxis in news production.
In this talk, Laura Partain Ph.D. provides an overview of her research agenda, broken down into the categories of media effects on socio-political participation and belonging as well as media effects on health and wellness.
Using examples on energy transition, pastoral systems, and global land rush, this presentation from Chuan Liao discusses how to apply an integrated data science-driven approach to examine human-environment interactions and analyze their sustainability and justice outcomes from local to global levels.
This talk by Michael Charles, Ph.D. aimed to show the powerful potential of conducting inclusive and collaborative research with Indigenous communities as we move forward in the pursuit of justice in the face of climate change.
Natalie L. Cápiro, Ph.D. highlighted the results of on-going research demonstrating the potential for biological transformation of select PFAS found in AFFF under conditions representative of impacted sites using native microbial communities.
A conversation with Ms. Tamara Toles O'Laughlin, Co-chair of the Green Leadership Trust & Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Women’s Voices for the Earth.