Research to Policy Engagement: Structural racism and accountability in the nuclear science community

Recent conversations unfolding in the public sphere have brought the ideas of equity, racism, colonialism, and their long-term and ongoing impacts to unprecedented mainstream awareness. This interactive session will explore the question of “how can my field be more inclusive and antiracist?” by looking at examples of technology and policy from the nuclear and aerospace fields. Dr. Aditi Verma (Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School) and Dr. Katlyn Turner (Research Scientist, MIT Media Lab) will present a framework that students, scholars, policymakers, and practitioners can use to understand how the history and development of norms in their particular field shapes mechanisms of exclusion today.

Please register and the Zoom information will be emailed to you.

IDSS has been discussing how we can counter systemic and structural racism and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within our community, locally and nationally. Similar discussions have taken place across MIT and academia more broadly. One theme that emerged from our conversations is that we believe IDSS is well positioned to conduct data and policy-driven research on structural racism and related societal issues, and provide research leadership both at MIT and beyond. We hope to advance research that will help identify and evaluate policies to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

To help educate ourselves and our colleagues and build momentum toward demonstrable change, we have decided to dedicate this semester’s Research to Policy seminar series to this effort. We will host four seminars that will examine different facets of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the intersection of research and policy. We will focus on how our multidisciplinary research can contribute to these broader conversations and how we can ensure our work meaningfully informs policy.

MIT’s Technology and Policy Program and its Research to Policy Engagement Initiative aims to to create a community of researchers who can learn, apply, and contribute to developing best practices in bridging knowledge to action on societal challenges, across experiences in different research domains.  The initiative seeks to connect researchers from diverse disciplines, policymakers and other stakeholders interested in the implementation aspects of technology by creating a discussion space for technology-policy interfaces.