Building Equity in Ecology (B.E.E.)
Beginning in the summer of 2020, the Odum Buzz began including a section devoted to social justice resources, Building Equity in Ecology (B.E.E). The goal of B.E.E. is to provide the Odum community with resources to learn more about these issues and become empowered to incite change within our community.
These resources are organized by a group of graduate students who are themselves trying to learn more about these topics. We are not claiming to be experts by any means, nor do our views or opinions reflect those of Odum or UGA. We are simply students who believe that academia is fraught with systemic issues that reinforce oppressive social systems outside the academy. We recognize that we live in a society where power influences everything, including our science, and we strongly believe that we, as academics, can no longer ignore these injustices in an attempt to remain “objective”.
Most of our resources will be aimed towards the majority (e.g. White, cis, hetero, American) because we recognize that undoing these oppressive social systems requires those with power to modify their behavior and the structure of institutions. However, we are committed to amplifying voices from the margins and hope that people of all identities find these resources useful. We hope that these resources will provide a shared foundation for learning and change in our department. Here is a link to the B.E.E. Archive.
Anti-Racism Resources
Here is a link to a Google document with anti-racism resources including local information for Athens, Atlanta, and Georgia. This document was created by OSE graduate student Annakate Schatz in June 2020.
Many folks in OSE have books on anti-racism topics and by Black authors and are willing to open up their personal libraries. Look here and borrow a book.