Over the past four years, the Genomics Salon has held several discussions on how genomics intersects with issues of race, diversity, and equity. Now, as our society reckons with the continued effects of structural racism, violence, and inequalities, we wanted to revisit these discussions. Hence, we have consolidated resources into a toolkit intended for anyone (particularly educators) interested in similarly revisiting, learning more, or creating curricula.
Huge thanks to our past salon discussion leaders who initially compiled these resources, particularly Alice Popejoy, Joanne Woiak, Kathleen West, Aaron Wolf, James Pfeiffer, Hugh Haddox, Jolie Carlisle, William Gordon, Sarah Nelson, Alyna Khan, Bryce Taylor, Jed Carlson, Michelle Noyes, and Philip Dishuck. Thanks as well to the team of current and past Salon organizers who put this toolkit together over the last week (Katherine Xue, Jolie Carlisle, Bryce Taylor, and Michael Goldberg).
We founded the Salon on the belief that scientists have a responsibility to ensure that our work is done justly and equitably. We encourage our colleagues in genetics and genomics to look inward to our own fields and grapple with some of these open questions about who takes part in and benefits from our research. Trainees – consider leading a journal club or discussion in your labs, departments, or courses you teach. Educators – consider incorporating these topics into your syllabi. This list of topics and references is by no means complete – they skew towards research from the UW community that organized these discussions – but we hope they can serve as entry points for further learning. We envision this document as a living resource, and we welcome all suggestions for how we can improve it going forward. If you are interested in helping out, please get in touch (genomicssalon@uw.edu) so that we can discuss how to involve you in this ongoing work.