APS-IDEA Topical Cohorts

Before applying to join APS-IDEA, please review our 2023-2024 offerings of topical cohorts and consider how these groups may help you and your institution address DEI challenges and barriers.

Topical cohort offerings may change each year, based on the current needs and interests of our teams.

Inclusion in Academic Environments

Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUI)-Focused

Audience

Teams from PUIs

Style

Practicum and discussion; light homework (team meetings, maybe suggested reading)

Description

Focus on supporting undergraduates academically and fostering holistic development within environments. Identify how the status quo environment supports some student learning and not others. Work to rectify that imbalance through modern teaching pedagogies, preparatory programs, student culture, safe spaces, etc.

Notes

Shared leadership within the APS-IDEA space means that a student’s perspective and ideas about the direction of the team’s work are as valid as a professor’s. However, leadership within departments is usually not shared and work should be allocated according to those able to take on the responsibility of completing it (i.e. don’t place unreasonable burdens/responsibilities on students).

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement a plan to improve student academic success locally.
• Teams should engage with institutional leadership to advocate for and advance their policy or programmatic goals.
• Teams will have a theoretical and praxis framework and resources for organizing environments focused on inclusion and equity.
• Teams should be able to identify common issues from shared discourse and framing.

R1/R2-Focused

Audience

Teams from institutions that have graduate students

Style

Practicum and discussion; light homework (team meetings, maybe suggested reading)

Description

Focus on supporting graduate and undergraduate students academically and holistically. Identify how the status quo environment supports some student learning and not others. Work to rectify that imbalance through modern teaching pedagogies, preparatory programs, student culture, safe spaces, etc. The discussions will also focus on the transition between undergraduate and graduate programs as a part of inclusion in particular in the R1/R2 space.

Notes

Shared leadership within the APS-IDEA space means that a student’s perspective and ideas about the direction of the team’s work are as valid as a professor’s. However, leadership within departments is usually not shared and work should be allocated according to those able to take on the responsibility of completing it (i.e. don’t place unreasonable burdens/responsibilities on students).

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement a plan to improve student academic success locally.
• Teams should engage with institutional leadership to advocate for and advance their policy or programmatic goals.
• Teams should be able to identify common issues from shared discourse.
• Teams should be able to discuss the culture of graduate programs and issues surrounding DEI.
• Teams will have a theoretical and praxis framework and resources for organizing environments focused on inclusion and equity.

DEI Literature & Research-Focused

Audience

Teams that prefer more enrichment and exploration of DEI literature.

Style

Activity-based meetings to help engage with material; moderate homework in the form of reading assigned articles or completing worksheets prior to each cohort meeting

Description

Focus on supporting graduate, and undergraduate students academically. Identify how the status quo environment supports some student learning and not others. Identify how the status quo environment works against the retention of junior faculty (and some senior faculty.) Work to rectify that imbalance through modern teaching pedagogies, preparatory programs, student culture, safe spaces, etc.

Notes

Shared leadership within the APS-IDEA space means that a student’s perspective and ideas about the direction of the team’s work are as valid as a professor’s. However, leadership within departments is usually not shared and work should be allocated according to those able to take on the responsibility of completing it (i.e. don’t place unreasonable burdens/responsibilities on students).

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement a plan to improve student academic success locally.
• Teams should develop and implement a plan to improve junior faculty success locally.
• Teams should engage with institutional leadership to advocate for and advance their policy or programmatic goals.
• Teams should grow in their understanding of potential barriers to student success and in evidence-based tools and techniques to address them.
• Teams will have a theoretical and praxis framework and resources for organizing environments focused on inclusion and equity.

Support-Focused

Audience

Teams that prefer more support-based models.

Style

Discussion and activities focus on supporting teams and their members in their local work; no homework aside from the usual local Team meetings.

Description

Focus on supporting graduate and undergraduate students academically. Identify how the status quo environment supports some student learning and not others. Work to rectify that imbalance through modern teaching pedagogies, preparatory programs, student culture, safe spaces, etc. Identify frameworks for support and what that looks for in developing supportive structures within departments.

Notes

Shared leadership within the APS-IDEA space means that a student’s perspective and ideas about the direction of the team’s work are as valid as a professor’s. However, leadership within departments is usually not shared and work should be allocated according to those able to take on the responsibility of completing it (i.e. don’t place unreasonable burdens/responsibilities on students).

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement a plan to improve student academic success locally.
• Teams should engage with institutional leadership to advocate for and advance their policy or programmatic goals.
• Teams should support each other within the cohort community.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) & Accessibility as Academic Counterculture

Audience

Teams that want to persuade their faculty colleagues and administrators to support their DEI and accessiblity efforts. This primarily focuses on teams facing institutional headwinds.

Style

Practicum and discussion; homework may include reading a book, apart from the usual team-level meetings and planning.

Description

When institutional leadership is uncooperative with DEI and accessiblity efforts, much depends on institutional governance and culture, which are highly variable. When it comes to DEI and accessiblity, the folk wisdom of appealing to people’s interests or engaging them in the change is often less helpful due to political ideology. The research of Adrianna Kezar (“How Colleges Change”, 2nd edition) identifies three kinds of tools that have promise:

1. Social cognition theories of change suggest that sensemaking is necessary, but not always sufficient. Storytelling and construction of narrative can also help.
2. Cultural theories of change suggest that working with the prevailing values, or introducing new values, and building new norms around them, can be effective.
3. Political theories of change highlight the role of power. When people in positions of lower power organize collective power, they can push through change (e.g. unionization). But it’s rarely used in academia, except by graduate students. Even without unionization, student protests can be effective, and sometimes collective efforts by faculty can as well (e.g., the 1990s movement by women in science started by biologist Nancy Hopkins).

Working “underground” until the leadership changes can be effective. Build small gains, document, and promote them. Most importantly, get like-minded people to find support through each other, and to draw others into your workplace movement. This is important for survival! And ultimately it can inform or even become the new leadership.

Notes

This topic will examine the theoretical aspects of psychology and anthropology that form barriers to change, but it is important to also discuss how to form a supportive academic environment despite institutional pushback, and to think about how to gradually gain the power to make a change over time.

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement a plan to create an inclusive counterculture within their department or institution from the ground.
• Teams should become familiar with the policies and people that prevent change and form strategies to address them.
• Teams should learn about, develop, and implement strategies to support DEI work if legislation arises in their local areas as well as learn how to negotiate/partner with grassroots efforts.

Supporting Research Environments in National Labs & Collaborations

Audience

Teams that are in a national lab or collaboration

Style

Discussion-based; homework may include team activities or reading an article apart from the usual team-level meetings and planning.

Description

Some activities and readings may focus on how to identify bias in policy and in practice. We often prefer to see problems in other places, but it is important to learn to catch ourselves in biased thinking and to dig into why an unintended bias keeps tripping people up during routine activities. It is impossible to treat a problem we cannot identify. So, the purpose of identification is not to place blame, but to figure out how to change the mechanism causing the trip. Identify areas of impact. Learn to build up documentation, present persuasively and gain the support of leadership for new policies, procedures, and programs.

Notes

Things these entities might care more about than the average university include postdocs, permanent staff, soft money research staff, integrating support staff, engineers, and technicians. Challenges particular to labs often encompass policies that are often made at levels far outside the control of scientists impacted by them, personnel may not be selected internally, and limitations on advocacy for civil servants. Challenges particular to collaborations are that it can be legally difficult to expel problematic members, cross-institutional norms may vary significantly, increased ability to claim someone else should be responsible for addressing problems (various home institutions’ HR departments), and geographic dispersion. In both cases, teams may struggle to find things they can have a meaningful impact on because DEI for STEM is often built with educational institutions in mind. Identifying small areas that have a visible impact and doing well with those can lead to administrative support for larger efforts. Teams at national labs and collaborations can have an outsized impact on their field due to their role as hubs of key personnel within their area. What they do and how they treat their employees is a standard by which other members of the community may judge themselves.

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement a plan to support DEI and accessiblity in their institution or organization.
• Teams should engage with institutional leadership to advocate for and advance their policy or programmatic goals.
• Teams should gain familiarity with how to interpret policies and practices in national labs and collaborations with plans to develop countermeasures as needed to create inclusive environments.
• Teams will be equipped with tools to navigate HR departments in a general sense.

Recruitment & Retention

Audience

Teams that regularly or imminently plan to hire (especially permanent positions) and hope to increase the diversity of their candidate pool and eventual hires.

Style

Discussion-based; homework may include team activities or reading an article apart from the usual team-level meetings and planning.

Description

Recruitment, hiring, and retention of a diverse workforce is beneficial to any organization. Some focus here will be paid on junior faculty. Part of this cohort will focus on identifying and eliminating biases in advertising and recruiting, including the hidden curriculum in finding and reading job ads for applicants. Then, it will focus on identifying common biases that appear in how applicants are described in written applications and letters of recommendation. Equivalent candidates can appear different on paper due to gender bias of letter writers, lack of equitable support in previous positions due to racism, or lack of confidence due to internalized biases from operating in the status quo culture. The hidden curriculum, neurodivergence, and confidence fallacy in virtual and in-person interviews. Why “cultural fit” can be a problematic metric. Some focus should also be placed on internal support structures to make sure that hired talent is retained and people are set up to succeed.

Notes

While everything from grades and test scores to letters and conversations can have a bias in it, there is not an argument to eliminate any metric that can be biased so much as the need to be aware of what biases can arise and where in order to avoid making decisions based on those.

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement a plan to identify and support local policy change and initiatives.
• Teams should engage with institutional leadership to advocate for and advance their policy or programmatic goals.
• Teams will work to develop hiring practices and plan to share them with their local departments.
• Teams will be able to use data and resources to build support for better retention and hiring practices.
• Teams will be able to recognize connections between hiring practices and the status quo of science culture.

Status Quo of Science Culture

Audience

Teams that want to better understand the status quo in order to better identify areas for change

Style

Discussion-based; homework may include Team activities or reading an article apart from the usual team-level meetings and planning.

Description

Science has long had a history of unspoken methods of operating as well as pervasive well-understood cultural practices centered around who is able to do science and hierarchical system/old guard culture. Status quo culture is one of the major underlying challenges to DEI activities as it continues to engage with methods that either work against change or stagnate progress. Status quo culture in science as a practice is reflected in the literature science has produced as well as influences on policy. This cohort will focus on understanding these historical practices, the effects they have had on progression in science and inclusion, how to recognize and combat status quo culture, and practices to implement long-term cultural change within departments and communities. This cohort will also make references to literature around decolonizing science, data informing status quo culture, and other pertinent documentation for cultivating a framework for change.

Notes

Though this is an existing topic, there are many updated frameworks that will include previous discussions from previous cohorts as well as new ideas, methodology, and framing.

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement a plan to identify and implement DEI projects, initiatives, and policies.
• Teams should engage with institutional leadership to advocate for and advance their policy or programmatic goals.
• Teams will have an understanding of status quo culture in science and develop tools for countering/challenging status quo culture in science.
• Teams will understand how to use data to aid in developing tools to combat the status quo culture in science.
• Teams will develop and implement strategies for common status quo culture issues across programs/departments, while also working on specific methods for their local departments.
• Teams will have a literary and theoretical framework for understanding current and historical writings on decolonizing science.

Coping with Anti-DEI Policies

Audience

Teams learning to work within restrictive policy environments

Style

Discussion-based; minimal homework.

Description

Nationally, we are seeing and experiencing many challenges to progressive policies that center DEI work, and in many cases, working to remove DEI projects and programs. Policy, advocacy, and navigating the challenges of anti-DEI policies are pivotal chess pieces in the progression of DEI work. Understanding how policy works and what advocacy looks like in the current climate is essential for strategically moving DEI work forward. This topical cohort will explore strategies for navigating policies related to anti-DEI legislation. Moreover, there will be discussions and activities centered on constructing a framework for understanding what advocacy looks like as well as coping with the challenges of anti-DEI policies. These topical cohort discussions will be supported by resources and literature on policy, advocacy work, and other historical documentation.

Notes

The premise of this topical cohort is based on operating in a support-cohort-oriented model. With support being provided, the goal of this cohort will also be to continue developing actionable steps, and plans, and gaining skills to combat anti-DEI policies and legislation. Ideally, there are some challenges cohorts will recognize as larger than any individual team can tackle, but this cohort will provide mechanisms for dealing with those challenges and fostering a sense of collectivism.

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should develop and implement DEI and accessiblity projects, initiatives, and policies.
• Teams feel supported through discussions with similar institutions.
• Teams will learn historical and current practices for advocacy against anti-DEI policies.
• Teams will learn about policy processes and gain some legal framework for how policies work in relation to DEI.
• Teams will develop ways to work with local organizations to learn and foster collaborations to combat anti-DEI legislation.
• Teams will recognize and understand best practices for coping with the challenges of anti-DEI legislation and DEI burnout/fatigue.

Fundamental Ideas in Organizational Change (OLCs)

Audience

Teams new to the APS-IDEA Network or wanting to refresh their understanding of the fundamentals

Style

Discussion-based; occasional homework in the form of reflective activities or pre-reading.

Description

This is a one-year version of the content previously presented during our OLC program. The work focuses on fundamental understanding and implementation of organizational change. Activities may include building and critiquing driver diagrams, building documentation, and understanding local climate. Might also use power mapping, and building familiarity with tools like a jamboard. Explanation of definitions and sensemaking around basic DEI and accessiblity concepts. Form connections with other teams for feedback and support.

Outcomes

Outcomes include:

• Teams should gain a deeper understanding of the process of cultural change, the APS-IDEA Guiding Principles, and how these ideas apply to their local setting.
• Teams will use fundamental training from OLCs to implement and begin to document plans for DEI projects, initiatives, and policies.
• New teams will gain access and work toward collaborating with a more senior team for best practices, networking, and support working within their own department/program navigating cultural change.