Things of the Internet
Some forms of online expression and communication are hard to classify. This page gathers tips, sites, and examples, on how to access, join, or use some of the more avant garde resources available on the internet.
Twitter is hard to classify as a resource for education because users experience Twitter differently depending on who and what they follow. However, we would be remiss in omitting it because of its usefulness as self-publishing platform and as a way to stay in tune with movements, events, and media that originate on Twitter. One recent example was Black Birders Week (#BlackBirdersWeek) which occurred during the summer of 2020 in response to a racist incident in NYC. This movement led to countless spinoff groups, conferences, communities, videos, and more highlighting black excellence in STEM.
#BlackInSTEM or Black in X' Weeks
Encouraged by the success of #BlackBirdersWeek in June 2020, many BlackInSTEM groups have founded their own initiatives, providing a week of virtual events and twitter hashtags to support and highlight the work of Black people in different scientific disciplines. --
J.Gill, The #BlackInSTEM 2020 Calendar
- Inaugural 'Black in X' Weeks Foster Inclusivity and Empowerment in STEMGreat overview with hashtags, dates, and lovely illustrations.
Hashtag activism
One of Twitter's more useful features for following movements is its hashtag system. This system allows users to link posts using hashtag terms (marked with a #) and find relevant posts (such as those for the Black in X weeks) by searching for hashtags. Learn more about how hashtags are used for activism and social justice movements:
#HashtagActivism by
How marginalized groups use Twitter to advance counter-narratives, preempt political spin, and build diverse networks of dissent. The power of hashtag activism became clear in 2011, when #IranElection served as an organizing tool for Iranians protesting a disputed election and offered a global audience a front-row seat to a nascent revolution. Since then, activists have used a variety of hashtags, including #JusticeForTrayvon, #BlackLivesMatter, #YesAllWomen, and #MeToo to advocate, mobilize, and communicate. In this book, Sarah Jackson, Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucault Welles explore how and why Twitter has become an important platform for historically disenfranchised populations, including Black Americans, women, and transgender people. They show how marginalized groups, long excluded from elite media spaces, have used Twitter hashtags to advance counternarratives, preempt political spin, and build diverse networks of dissent. The authors describe how such hashtags as #MeToo, #SurvivorPrivilege, and #WhyIStayed have challenged the conventional understanding of gendered violence; examine the voices and narratives of Black feminism enabled by #FastTailedGirls, #YouOKSis, and #SayHerName; and explore the creation and use of #GirlsLikeUs, a network of transgender women. They investigate the digital signatures of the "new civil rights movement"--the online activism, storytelling, and strategy-building that set the stage for #BlackLivesMatter--and recount the spread of racial justice hashtags after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other high-profile incidents of killings by police. Finally, they consider hashtag created by allies, including #AllMenCan and #CrimingWhileWhite.
Call Number: P302.37 J35 2020
An online forum with channels, aka "subreddits", dedicated to different themes and topics. The rules, tone, culture, and activity of each subreddit are as different as the content. The following subreddits highlight interviews conducted by asynchronous "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) sessions with professionals in STEM fields as well as communities dedicated to women in STEM. The list is incomplete, and we're sure more applicable subreddits exist.
- AMA posts on r/Sciencer/Science's AMA (ask me anything) program has been discontinued, but its large archive of posts, with good diversity of topics and authors, remains available.
- r/AskScienceAMAA subreddit dedicated to science AMAs.
- r/LadiesofScienceA subreddit for women who work in, about, or around science (or would like to).
- r/womenEngineersA place for all things related to women in engineering.
Blogs & Vlogs
Blogs are regularly updated webpages that typically contain personal accounts and reflections on a topic. Many science bloggers have since moved to newer platforms like Twitter and Reddit. The following is a not comprehensive list of current blogs highlighting diversity in STEM.
- VoicesExploring and celebrating diversity in science. From the Scientific American blog network.
- Sistas in STEMSistas in STEM is a resource for Black women and women of color to be educated, connected, and empowered in their daily lives and their passion for STEM. Also has a podcast and YouTube channel.
- LGBTQ+ STEMThis project showcases LGBTQ+ people in the STEM fields, showing the diversity of people that can be found in roles all across the STEM disciplines. Includes interviews with LGBTQ+ scientists of color.
- Women@NASA BlogHighlights the women of NASA, including Q&A with current scientists and profiles of historical women scientists.
This guide was made to accompany the 2021 ISCORE presentation:
Diverse STEM Reading: A Layercake of Problems :-/
Presented and created by:
Megan O'Donnell, Data Services Librarian &
Erin Thomas, Engineering Librarian