Abstract
Undergraduate research internship programs are generally expected to
teach interns about research ethics and research misconduct, often using
case studies on plagiarism, data falsification/fabrication, and issues
around authorship and intellectual property. While these are vital
topics to discuss, this approach ignores the fundamental way in which
Western science developed in tandem with European imperialistic
expansion, and the ethically questionable way in which science
historically has been and is often still conducted. For example: 1) How
was the ideal of “discovery” in pursuit of knowledge used to justify
European imperial expansion, and how did that history shape the current
culture of science? 2) When collecting data in the field, do researchers
consistently seek permission from the indigenous/international
communities that reside on the land? And 3) Do Western scientists tend
to disregard Traditional Ecological Knowledge from different cultures as
a result of this history? In our 2021 Geosciences REU Workshop Series,
we developed an ‘Ethics in the Geosciences Workshop’ that covers the
traditional ethics topics, but also shines a light on the dark history
of colonialism and racism that underpin Western science. We discussed
prominent historical figures such as John Wesley Powell and Captain
James Cook. Both men are greatly celebrated in academic/scientific
spheres as explorers, cartographers, and scientists . However, their
historical contributions reveal blatant racism towards indigenous
people, the dismissal of indigenous knowledge and culture as being
primitive and delusional, and for Cook, involved brutal slaughters
around the world. Their values were aligned with Western imperialism,
military expansion, and racism. The workshop included a discussion of
examples of ‘parachute’ or ‘helicopter’ science, and the colonial
undertones of modern day research in the Geosciences. Examples of
racism, sexism, and safety in the field were examined through both a
lecture and open-dialogue on a virtual platform. We acknowledged the
many identities that we bring to science (race, gender, sexual identity,
ability, nationality & citizenship, etc.), the relative privilege and
power that these different identities may hold, and discussed addressing
slurs and slights by using bystander strategies, as well as finding
support in affinity groups. In tandem with this approach of broadening
the scope of ethics discussions, it is hoped that intentionally creating
safe, inclusive spaces in science for people of various and intersecting
identities has the potential to change the ethical framework and social
atmosphere in which we do science.