Abstract Detail



Enhancing Scientist Diversity in Plant Biology Luncheon - Beth Leonard

Leonard, Beth [1].

Diversity and inclusion in the sciences: Relationships and reciprocity.

Beth Leonard is Deg Xit’an (Athabascan), a member of the Shageluk Tribe of interior Alaska, and professor of Alaska Native Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage. In 2014, Leonard was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Core Scholarship and spent five months at Te Kawa a Māui, School of Māori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington teaching a graduate/undergraduate course Indigenous Knowledges and the Sciences in Global Contexts with physicist and Māori Studies faculty Dr. Ocean Mercier. In addition, she interviewed Māori Studies faculty on Māori student recruitment retention and mentoring. Leonard is a member of the Alaska Native Studies Council, the University of the Arctic Indigenous Issues Committee and a 2019 Arctic Indigenous Scholar (Arctic Research Consortium of the United States/Inuit Circumpolar Council). Her research investigates the confluences of Indigenous methodologies, knowledges and pedagogies. As a second language learner of her heritage language Deg Xinag, Leonard found that this process provided a doorway into the scientific worldview of the Deg Xit’an peoples whose terms for plants reflect complex kinship relationships between and among the human and non-human worlds. In this presentation, Leonard will illustrate examples of human and plant relationships from Deg Xit’an stories, and discuss how her personal language-learning journey intersects with academia. Her discussion will include methods of engaging and mentoring under-represented students through academic content that foregrounds Indigenous knowledges, and engages Indigenous values of relationships and reciprocity as a pathway to diversity and inclusion in the sciences.


Related Links:
Alaska NSF EPSCoR: Diversity, Education and Workforce Development
2019 Arctic Indigenous Scholars
Fulbright Seminar


1 - University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Native Studies, 8635 Bell Pl, Anchorage, AK, 99507, United States

Keywords:
Indigenous Sciences
Indigenous Knowledges
Alaska Native Studies.

Presentation Type: Special Presentations
Session: S04, Diversity Keynote - Beth Leonard
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2020
Time: 3:00 PM
Number: S04001
Abstract ID:146
Candidate for Awards:None


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