Building an Inclusive Botany: The “Radicle” Dream

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10478. This is version 3 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Makenzie Mabry , Nuala Caomhanach, R. Shawn Abrahams, Michelle Gaynor, Kasey K Pham, Tanisha Williams, Kathleen Murphy, Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, Douglas E Soltis, Pamela S Soltis

Abstract

Driven by the national conversation on systemic racism, ongoing inequities, appeals to decolonize science, and the many recent calls for diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, we use stories of plants to discuss the history of bias and exclusionary practices in scientific botany, particularly regarding access to scientific spaces, and the exploitation of marginalized peoples. We discuss the many opportunities and challenges presented by the age of information technology as we seek to create a more inclusive botany that recognizes and acknowledges the contributions of historically marginalized groups, including Black and Indigenous communities. We hope this article can be used as a conversation starter to raise awareness, encourage reflection, and promote action toward creating a more equitable and just scientific practice.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32942/X22P51

Subjects

Life Sciences

Keywords

accessibility, Botany, Colonialism, Community science, History of science, plant science, Specimen Digitization, Traditional knowledge

Dates

Published: 2023-07-22 11:30

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License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Language:
English

Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data and Code Availability Statement:
Scripts and data files can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7595168. Open Education Resource can be found on Qubes - link will be added after paper acceptance.