Professor of Practice | Director, UWyo SciComm Initiative | Co-founder, Meteor: The Honest Podcast about SciComm with Impact (Views are my own and do not represent my employer.)
Yesterday, I got a major professional award for my work & scholarship in #SciComm & systems change. I'm thrilled, but acutely aware that - by all measures of the academic prestige paradigm - people like me aren't supposed to win this award. I was elected an Early Career Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in recognition of my work to foster professionalization and a mature community of practice for SciComm. Science is vital, and people training in science want to make the world better, but most science-trained folks aren't equipped to effectively share it in society. My work for the past decade helps people actively overcome these barriers. None of this work is possible without the wisdom and dedication of incredible collaborators and colleagues. Why not? Because scientists' lack of capacity to effectively share science is predictable: academia systematically impedes/devalues SciComm scholarship and practice. It's not possible to do what I do alone, because we're trying to transform this system. I've written about this extensively (start here: https://lnkd.in/gTQkhBAP). This work has been an uphill slog. The short story is that this award is tremendously important given our mutual support and collective action occurs inside a broader system that sees SciComm as “less than.” People who sustain the prestige paradigm in academia construct a system that devalues the work, study, and teaching of SciComm. These attitudes assume people like me don't exist. Assume I won't even join a scientific society like ESA, let alone stick around for 10 years and affect change that helps other members. These systems assume people like me aren't on faculty and don't run independent programs that warrant institutional support. The system isn't ready for us, especially when we work together to make the world a better place! The only way to successfully transform even a small corner of such a system is to work together over the long haul. While this award is meaningful, and I really appreciate receiving it, I want to be very clear. This award is both important and actually changes nothing. I still have a contingent, underpaid, undervalued job in a system that doesn't value what I do. If I had waited for someone to say what we do matters, or that we were allowed to do it, none of this good work would have ever happened. We can't wait for folks to catch up with how much SciComm matters to the future of our students, the places we live/work, and the world. But, because academics are conditioned to devalue SciComm, no one can sustainably work for positive change hoping for an award not made for us. If I've learned anything from getting this award (after having my work considered uncompetitive for many others), it's that we can't let prestige biases get in our way. SciComm matters, whether gatekeepers agree or not. Let's keep doing it, together!
Benjamin Polley
8mo
Congrats, Bette. Well-deserved.
Congratulations!
What an honor to receive this award -- and so well-deserved! You've done such great things for Wyoming and our field of scicomm. I love your passion for mentorship. Keep being a bright star! Congrats!
Congratulations, you are amazing!
Congrats Bethann! I so appreciate you. 🌼
Faith Kearns
8mo
Congratulations on the award and yes to all the rest!
Well deserved, Bethann! So happy for you.
You're amazing, congratulations!
Ramesh Laungani
7mo
Well deserved! Congrats!
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
8moCongratulations Colleague. Cowgirl proud. Keep doing great things for the community.