It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Banned Chinese drama by Nobel-winning author remounted on University of Calgary stage
Absurdist drama The Bus Stop premiered in Beijing in the 1980's, where it was a hit with audiences but banned by the Chinese government after 13 performances, for being considered 'spiritual pollution'
A play by a Nobel Prize winning author that was banned in China in the 1980s after only 13 performances is back onstage, only in Calgary.
The Canadian premiere of The Bus Stop, by Gao Xingjian, is being presented at the University of Calgary. It's a student initiated project, being directed by MFA Directing candidate Fangzheng (Nick) Wang.
The play tells the story of a group of citizens waiting for the 'bus to the city' to arrive, with all the promise that entails of better lives.
Written in the 1980s, the play premiered at the Beijing People's Art Theatre, where it was said to be a hit with patrons, until it was shut down by the Community Party after 13 performances for being 'spiritual pollution'.
Now, more than 30 years later, The Bus Stop resonates as a cry for a return to normalcy after the stresses of the pandemic said Christine Brubaker, U of C's Drama Division lead.
“The Bus Stop becomes a metaphor for our collective longing of the last 21 months,” said Brubaker in a release. “And with crossing languages, histories, geography and cultures, this play celebrates the shared vulnerability and aspirations in a post-pandemic era.”
The play remains an influential text in Chinese absurdist drama. During the 1980s, Xingjian published a number of novels, plays and other writing considered critical of the Chinese government. He ultimately left the Communist Party after the Tiananmen Square massacre, and relocated to France, and has since become a French citizen. He won the 2000 Nobel Prize for literature.
It runs through Dec. 4 at the University Theatre at the U of C and features Mandarin subtitles.
Tickets are $22 (adults) / $17 (students/seniors) and are available online through scpa.ucalgary.ca/events or at the door.
Edmonton Public School trustees to vote on more inclusive stat holidays
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' I just see this as a great, wonderful opportunity to bring everyone together'
Mohammed Hussain's family celebrates Eid Ul Adha in Edmonton. (Submitted by Mohammed Hussain)
When families are gathered together eating Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, most kids aren't thinking about homework due at school the next day.
But that wasn't the case for Timiro Mohamed's family when they celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr or Eid-ul-Adha.
"You can't celebrate in the same way around the dinner table, talking and laughing and experiencing a holiday that matters so much to you," said Mohamed, the youth initiatives manager at Islamic Family Services.
"You're thinking about an assignment that's due tomorrow or somebody is missing."
An announcement two years ago that the Edmonton Public School Board was looking at cutting five school days due to budget cuts sparked an idea.
"It's kind of a cool opportunity if they're already dropping five days from the school year to use this as a time for collective action in the community," Mohamed said.
Since 2020, a group of more than 30 students, leaders, parents and teachers has been working with the Edmonton Public School board to build a school calendar that includes days off for significant religious holidays.
After consulting with several communities in Edmonton, the group settled on Bandi Chhor Divas, Diwali, Eid-ul-Adha, Eid-ul-Fitr, Indigenous Peoples Day, Lunar New Year, Winter Solstice & Yom Kippur
Adding the holidays to the school calendar would only require shifting four school days.
'It's just part of my identity'
"I always wished that I could have that time with family because it's just part of my identity. It's part of how I grew up, and it's how we gather and celebrate," Mohamed said. "The same way that I was always used to having time off on Christmas."
Grace Martin School in Mill Woods observes Eid as a statutory holiday, as do school boards in New York, New Jersey and Austin.
Individual schools within EPSB already adapt calendars to fit larger absences on holidays.
Mohammed Hussain, father of three, pulls his kids out of school for Eid-ul-Adha and Eid-ul-Fitr.
They're not alone, he said, as usually about 10 children are away on those days.
"Sometimes there are double-digit absences on each day," Hussain said."So the teachers and the principals, they actually work with the community and they decide to cover less material on those specific days."
Hussain thinks making the change would be more reflective of the student body and society as a whole.
"What we've seen over the last few years is there's been so many efforts to divide the populations and demographic and people and so on," Hussain said. "And I just see this as a great, wonderful opportunity to bring everyone together."
Mohamed has already met with the Edmonton Public School Board three times and will present again on Tuesday. Trustees will vote on the proposal Tuesday afternoon.
"The perfect scenario is that after our conversation, the holidays that we've been advocating for are recognized not only as part of an interfaith calendar but that they're actually built in as statutory holidays as part of EPSB, and for generations to come and for years to come students have that day off."
Edmonton advocates ask public school board to give kids day off for holidays like Eid, Diwali, and Yom Kippur
Author of the article: Lauren Boothby Publishing date: Nov 29, 2021
Empty classroom at an Edmonton school. File photo. Postmedia, file
Youth advocates are asking the Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) to give students the day off for significant religious and cultural holidays when the board votes on the 2022-23 academic calendar on Tuesday .
With five teaching days already removed from the 2020-21 school year to save money, advocates say this is the perfect opportunity to recognize the student body’s diversity by assigning them to significant holidays. This can all be done without changing the number of hours in the classroom or altering the budget, says Omar Yaqub, executive director of Islamic Family and Social Services (IFSS).
Allowing kids to take the day off for significant holidays would send the message to students of different faiths that they’re a valuable part of the community, Yaqub says.
“If you celebrate Christmas, your holiday is a default. If you celebrate these other days, you’re not recognized,” he says. “(Approving this) tells the students, tells the students’ parents, that they’re important, that their values, their culture, their identity, matters.”
Spreading the new non-instructional days out also takes pressure off families relying on school meal programs, according to Yaqub.
IFSS’s youth program the Green Room, and Sangat Youth, first brought the idea to the board last December and the group has been speaking with different communities since then to determine which days off make sense.
They identified eight holidays that, for the next two academic years, only require four days away from class because some, like the Lunar New Year, fall on weekends or outside the school year.
Four holidays proposed for the 2022-23 school year are: Yom Kippur, Bandi Chhor Divas and Diwali, Winter Solstice, and National Indigenous Peoples Day and Summer Solstice. For the following year, Yom Kippur, Eid-al Fitr, Eid-al-Adha, National Indigenous Peoples Day or Summer Solstice, are requested.
Daman Kaur Grewal, co-president of Sangat Youth, says some teachers already treat these holidays as non-instructional days because many students are absent.
“The way that our systems are set up should be reflective of our community and the diverse makeup,” she says. “We’re not asking for any other holidays to be taken away, it’s just to include other ones.”
As a Sikh who attended public school, Grewal says she missed many events significant to her faith as a child, and that can leave kids feeling detached from their cultures as they navigate dual identities.
“Students are having to pick between their education and their community and their faith,” she says. “It definitely impacts your self-esteem and the way you identify.”
Superintendent Darrel Robertson, in a memo part of Tuesday’s agenda , says there are operational challenges with approving the days off and the calendar can only accommodate one. He also noted the Education Act allows children to be excused for religious holidays
The division has also created a multi-faith calendar and is asking staff avoid scheduling some activities on those days, and to reference it when planning exams and project deadlines.
“The goal is that families who observe the religious holiday can do so without concern of missing important school assessments or activities,” said Robertson.
Of families polled about the 2020 changes , 56.2 per cent said they preferred the new days off be chunked together. About 85 per cent who chose this option did so citing desire to go on a family vacation or other activities.
Greenpeace: half a century on the frontline of environmental photo activism
On the organisation’s 50th anniversary, former head of photography at Greenpeace International talks about the motives behind the creation of its picture desk
Greenpeace ship MY Esperanza and activists try to hinder the shooting of a minke whale by the Yushin Maru No.2 catcher ship. Photograph: Kate Davison/Greenpeace
by John Novis THE GUARDIAN Mon 29 Nov 2021
Fifty years ago, on 15 September 1971, a ship named the Greenpeace set out to confront and stop US nuclear weapons testing at Amchitka, one of the Aleutian Islands in south-west Alaska.
Two years later a small boat called the Vega, crewed by David McTaggart, Ann-Marie Horne, Mary Horne and Nigel Ingram sailed into the French nuclear test site area at Moruroa, French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. Photographers had been using their images for years to publicise situations around the world. But Greenpeace was a young organisation pioneering a new kind of activism: this was the moment they began to realise that capturing images of what they were doing and seeing would play a vital role in their work.
Vega boarded by French commandos in Moruroa, 1973. Photograph: Ann-Marie Horne
French commandos boarded the Vega and assaulted McTaggart and Ingram. However, in the confusion Ann-Marie Horne managed to get a few secret shots and was able to smuggle out the film of the incident by concealing it in her vagina. Her pictures showed the commandos armed with knives and truncheons. The pictures and story consequently made groundbreaking news, stoking the nuclear testing controversy.
After the Vega incident, Greenpeace made a pledge to photograph everything it did. It quickly learned how to harness the power and strength of emotive images bringing the world shocking scenes of seal pups clubbed by hunters and the inspirational images of activists standing up to whaling ships. Activists in protective suits painting ‘Amazon Crime!’ in white paint on the freighter MV Enif ship which was loaded with timber from Brazil in Hamburg, Germany, in 2000. Photograph: Fred Dott
In the mid-1980s, the fast-growing organisation started to get serious about photography and needed a communications division to professionally handle the growing archive of negatives and film rushes that were being stored on office floors, plus a space dedicated to housing state-of-the-art image technology.
A film production area, picture desk and darkroom were established in London; there was equipment ranging from the early AP Leefax transmitters to cutting edge teletext machines for news updates. Film processing, printing, editing, captioning and cataloging was all done in-house by a small, dedicated team. Greenpeace activists disrupt coal loading at the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia 2005. Photograph: Richard Green
Greenpeace’s images would often feature on Reuters and AP, with the BBC and other influential news outlets using the images. A core team of Greenpeace photographers emerged; these individuals were professionals in the industry with empathy for Greenpeace ethics and equipped mentally to deal with the hardship of the organisation’s ambitious campaigns. Photographs: Doerthe Hagenguth, Keith K Annis, Abbie Trayler-Smith and Victor Moriyama
As the organisation continued to grow, newly opened national offices around the world were making images for their own national media in different, culturally sensitive styles. Actions became more ambitious and grander, with two or three photographers sometimes commissioned for one event.
In the last 20 years digital communication has transformed and turned the photo industry around. Many small agencies have not survived the changing media landscape generated by the vast consumption and oversaturation of photos available on the internet. The viewer is privileged to know more about the issue, brought closer to the reality, can interact, and play their own part in the story. Climate change, extreme weather, human displacement, political struggle and even wars can be directly linked to environmental issues and are now subjects of intensive debate. Adult brown pelicans wait in a holding pen to be cleaned by volunteers at the Fort Jackson International Bird Rescue Research Center in Buras following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Louisiana 2010. Photograph: Daniel Beltrá
The Greenpeace picture desks globally embrace all distribution portals – from its relationships with global wire agencies, to the established social networks, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Photographic technology has transitioned to digital during Greenpeace’s 50 years, yet the fundamental principle behind photo activism remains unchanged. The photographer skilfully captures a significant, controversial, and groundbreaking event and a strategic decision is made as to when and how to release the story to the world.
Through the dedication of critical ecological campaigning, the bravery of activists, the professionalism of photographers, discerning communicators and the careful preservation of the organisation’s images.
Greenpeace – the pioneer of photo activism – has remained committed to its core values of exposing environmental injustice though its imagery for the last 50 years. A man attempts to rescue two oil firefighters, Zhang Liang and Han Xiaoxiong, struggling in thick oil slick in Dalian, China in 2010. Photograph: Lu Guang
Archaeologists uncover post-conquest Aztec altar in Mexico City
Sometime after Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in modern-day Mexico City in 1521, an indigenous household that survived the bloody Spanish invasion arranged an altar including incense and a pot with human ashes.
The remains of that elaborate display have been unearthed by archaeologists near what is today Garibaldi Plaza, famed for its revelry and mariachi music, Mexico’s culture ministry said on Tuesday.
In the wake of the fall of Tenochtitlan, likely within the years of 1521 and 1610, the offering from the family of the Mexica people was made “to bear witness to the ending of a cycle of their lives and of their civilization,” the culture ministry said in a statement.
The interior patio where rituals took place is about four meters (13 feet) below ground level, according to a team of archaeologists who spent three months analyzing the site.
They found various layers of what had been a home over the centuries, the statement said, along with 13 incense burners, five bowls, a cup, a plate and a pot with cremated skeletal remains.
The finding coincides with the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest, which Mexico’s government commemorated by building a towering replica of the Templo Mayor, the Aztec civilization’s most sacred site, in downtown Mexico City.
A number of ancient discoveries in the Mexico City area in recent years, including some in the capital’s bustling downtown, have shone light on the Aztec civilization. They include the remains of a ceremonial ball court, a sacrificial wolf adorned with gold and a tower of human skulls.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had previously sought an apology from Spain and the Vatican for human rights abuses committed during the conquest of what is modern-day Mexico.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Karishma Singh)
WHEN GOOD IS BAD
Steam disinfection of baby bottle nipples exposes babies and the environment to micro- and nanoplastic particles
The research into the breakdown and pollution of silicone-rubber baby bottle nipples is highlighted in this illustration. Credit: UMass Amherst
Using a new microspectroscopic technique, collaborating scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Nanjing University in China have found that steam disinfection of silicone-rubber baby bottle nipples exposes babies and the environment to micro- and nanoplastic particles.
The health and environmental risks of these very fine particles are still unknown, but microplastic pollution is a growing global concern on land, in the seas and in human bodies. The research is the first to identify this new source of microplastic contamination.
"Babies are the most sensitive group for any contaminants, not only microplastics (less than 5 mm by definition)," says Baoshan Xing, professor of environmental and soil chemistry and director of the UMass Amherst Stockbridge School of Agriculture and co-corresponding author of the research, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. "Conventional techniques are unable to detect these small particles, and the smaller the particles, the larger the physiological effect."
Xing collaborated with lead author Yu Su and co-corresponding author Rong Ji, both environmental scientists in Nanjing University's School of the Environment, as well as other colleagues in China.
"Silicone rubber was considered to be a thermally stable polymeric material in the past, but we noticed that it undergoes aging after repeated moist heat disinfections," Su says. "The aging and decomposition of plastics are a major source of microplastics in the environment. We proposed and confirmed that silicone rubber can be decomposed by moist heating to microplastics, even nanoplastics (less than 1 µm)."
Previous research by Xing, who has been named to an annual list of the world's most highly cited researchers every year since the analytics began in 2014, and colleagues in China showed that nanoplastics—known to widely pollute oceans, surface waters and lands—are internalized by plants and also reduce lipid digestion in a simulated human gastrointestinal system.
Traditional techniques are unable to detect particles smaller than about 20 micrometers, which is roughly half the size of a human hair's thickness. At Nanjing University, researchers examined the rubber nipples using optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) microspectroscopy, the new and emerging technique that is able to analyze a material's composition and morphology.
The microspectroscope revealed numerous flake- or oil-film-shaped micro- and nanoplastics as small as 0.6 micrometers, or 600 nanometers, in the wash waters of the steam-disinfected rubber nipples. The technique also showed submicrometer-resolved steam etching on and chemical modification of the nipple surface.
"The results indicated that by the age of one year, a baby could ingest >0.66 million elastomer-derived micro-sized plastics (MPs)… Global MP emission from teat disinfection may be as high as 5.2 × 1013 particles per year," the research paper states.
Xing and colleagues point out that similar silicone-rubbed-based consumer products, including bakeware and sealing rings in cups and cooking appliances, are also likely to produce micro- and nanoplastic particles when heated at or above 100 degrees C. They will continue their research into the release of particles into the environment from various plastic objects.
"We've identified this significant new source of microplastics to the environment," Xing says. "Some plastics go into the sewer systems. They get into the water and landfills. They have such a long lifetime in the environment because they don't decompose readily."
More information:Yu Su et al, Steam disinfection releases micro(nano)plastics from silicone-rubber baby teats as examined by optical photothermal infrared microspectroscopy,Nature Nanotechnology(2021).DOI: 10.1038/s41565-021-00998-x
Nobel-winning stock market theory used to help save coral reefs
Portfolio selection rules on evaluating risk used to pick 50 reefs as ‘arks’ best able to survive climate crisis and revive coral elsewhere
A coral reef in Mafia Island marine park in Tanzania. The study has helped conservationists target resources on the reefs most likely to survive the climate crisis. Photograph: Simon Pierce
A Nobel prize-winning economic theory used by investors is showing early signs of helping save threatened coral reefs, scientists say.
Researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland used modern portfolio theory (MPT), a mathematical framework developed by the economist Harry Markowitz in the 1950s to help risk-averse investors maximise returns, to identify the 50 reefs or coral sanctuaries around the world that are most likely to survive the climate crisis and be able to repopulate other reefs, if other threats are absent.
The study recommends targeting investment in conservation projects that have the “strongest potential to succeed” in protecting priority reefs. The gains go beyond positive ecological outcomes and include crucial social, economic, health and nutritional benefits for communities, according to partners, organisations and funders interviewed by Blue Earth Consultants.
Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a climate scientist at the University of Queensland, who helped lead the “50 reefs” project, said: “It’s essentially a strategy to help us make decisions about what to protect, if we are to have corals at the end of the century.”
“It is our best shot at having a long-term future for coral reefs,” he said.
Coral reefs face a dire future. Even if drastic emission reductions ensured global heating was limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – which would require almost halving global CO2 emissions by 2030 from 2010 levels – 70% to 90% of today’s corals would vanish.
Bleached coral at Ko Losin, Thailand. About 14% of coral reefs have been lost in the past decade, mostly to bleaching. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters
In October, a study of coral reef health found 14% has been lost globally in less than a decade, with bleaching events caused by raised sea-surface temperatures the biggest culprit.
“Modern portfolio theory is a framework that aims to reduce risk while maximising returns,” said Hoegh-Guldberg. “It’s treating conservation sort of as an investment opportunity.”
The strategy, which came out of a meeting of scientists at the HawaiÊ»i Institute of Marine Biology in 2017, tapped into the theory to help scientists choose a “balanced” portfolio of coral reefs.
“You’ve got hundreds of these reefs across the planet,” said Hoegh-Guldberg. “Which one do you pick, so that you concentrate your efforts on it?”
Researchers hope to breed Great Barrier Reef corals more resilient to extreme heat events – video
Dr Hawthorne Beyer, a fellow at the University of Queensland researching the use of quantitative modelling in managing environmental systems, said: “Talk to people in the business world and they get it immediately. It’s a very logical idea and makes a lot of sense. Ours was the first to apply it on a global scale.”
The scientists divided the world’s coral reefs into “bioclimatic units” (BCU) of 500 sq km (190 sq miles). They used 174 metrics, in five categories, including temperature history and projections, ocean acidification, invasive species, cyclone activity and connectivity to other reefs, for each one. Then, using a process called “scalarisation”, they produced estimates for each BCU. This captured the widest range of possibilities for the future. “We don’t know which metrics are the best metrics at predicting risk,” explained Beyer.
The team then used MPT to quantify threats and identify the reefs offering the best options for conservation, while allowing for the uncertainty over future risks from climate change.
“You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket, or bet on one measure of risk, when we have massive uncertainty about what the risks will be,” he said.
Clownfish in an anemone on coral in the Great Barrier Reef, parts of which were identified as priority areas by the study. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty
The project identified reefs across the Middle East, northern and eastern Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, Pacific islands, South America, south-east and south Asia. They include parts of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Egyptian and southern Red Sea, and parts of the “coral triangle” around Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. But, based on the criteria for climate and connectivity, the model excluded several ecologically significant areas, such as Hawaii and Central America’s Barrier Reef. Advertisement
Nearly $93m (£70m) has been invested in the project, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Vibrant Oceans initiative and others. The report found the 50 reefs-inspired approach had helped at least 26 organisations, and eight funders have now prioritised 60 coral reef ecosystems across more than 40 countries.
Coral reefs cover just 0.2% of the ocean floor but are home to at least a quarter of all marine species and support hundreds of millions of people. Conservation efforts inspired by the study have focused on five threats to coral: fishing; “non-point source pollution”, such as from fertilisers, runoff from roads, or sediment; wastewater pollution; coastal development; and stress to reefs from climatic extremes.
The WCS has $18m in funding for work in 11 countries, including Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya and Tanzania, on 21 of the 50 reefs, to help communities reduce pressure on the precious ecosystems.
“We are looking at non-climate threats such as overexploitation, destructive fishing, unsustainable tourism, coastal development, water pollution. We then ask ‘well, what are the top local pressures?’,” said Darling. “And that’s how we identify which intervention to tailor to those different situations.”
A no-take marine protected area between Kenya and Tanzania – in which no fishing, mining, drilling or similar activities are allowed – has been supported by WSC to protect the corals from these other pressures running alongside global heating.
“By doing that, we will not only safeguard coral reef biodiversity, but also the whales, spinner dolphins, the dugong, coelacanth fish, that whole ecosystem,” she said.
One of the 50 reefs identified is the “happy coral” sanctuary discovered in Tanzania, reported by the Guardian last year, where coral species have thrived despite warming events that have killed neighbouring reefs.
‘It is not biology’: Women’s chess hindered by low numbers and sexism
The governing body is pushing to make the game more welcoming for women – but is change happening fast enough?
The 2021 Palestinian chess championship for women, which took place in Hebron last month.
Towards the end of the Queen’s Gambit, the Netflix show that helped to supercharge the new chess boom, Beth Harmon crushes a series of top male grandmasters before beating Vasily Borgov, the Russian world champion. Fiction, though, remains sharply separated from fact. As Magnus Carlsen was reminded before starting his world title defence in Dubai last week, there is not a single active woman’s player in the top 100 now that Hou Yifan of China, who is ranked 83rd, is focusing on academia. The lingering question: why? Chess: Carlsen plans fast start in Dubai while Firouzja captures his records
For Carlsen, the subject was “way too complicated” to answer in a few sentences, but suggested a number of reasons, particularly cultural, were to blame. Some, though, still believe it is down to biology. As recently as 2015 Nigel Short, vice-president of the world chess federation Fide, claimed “men are hardwired to be better chess players than women, adding: “You have to gracefully accept that.”
That claim raises the eyebrows of the greatest female chess player, Judit Polgar, who was ranked as high as No 8 in the world and, amusingly, has a winning record against Short. “It is not down to biology,” she tells the Guardian. “It’s just as possible for a woman to become the best as any guy. But there are so many difficulties and social boundaries for women generally in society. That is what blocks it.”
Polgar, who defeated 11 current or former world champions in either rapid or classical chess, including Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen, before retiring in 2014, believes that an early start, encouraging girls to think big, and better teaching are crucial factors. “All champions and big players start to play chess and get familiar with the game at a pretty early age,” says the Hungarian grandmaster, who is now a commentator on the website Chess24.
The Hungarian Judit Polgar, the most successful female player in chess, pictured in 2017. Photograph: Peter Kohalmi/AFP/Getty Images
The development biologist Emma Hilton also dismisses the idea that the gap between men and women can be put down to genetics. A crucial point, she says, is that chess has an “extremely skewed starting pool” – with far more boys learning to play the game than girls. That, she says, “makes it extremely unlikely that we will see a female world champion”.
The English international master Jovanka Houska believes this smaller pool has knock-on effects in other areas, particularly when it comes to being the only one or two girls in a group. “We have situations where the girls don’t feel very comfortable playing, whilst the boys can hang around, make friends and play amongst themselves and get better that way,” she says.
Is sexism also a factor? “It is, sadly,” says Houska. “It’s mainly because there are so few women playing. And it’s reinforced by national federations who don’t publicise your achievements to help you with funding. When I look at the situation across Europe, I see a lot of top women players fighting their federations for basic things.”
There is also a far darker side in all this. Last year the women’s Fide master Alexandra Botez, who is also the most popular female chess streamer, spoke of her shocking experiences in the sport and warned: “In chess so much predatory behaviour has been normalised.”
In Botez’s view, it is far too common for men to use their age and position to go on the “hunt” for women and girls. “It has been going on for so long and no one blinks an eye,” she said. “The extent to which people never say anything and find things OK is pretty spooky.” Other women have echoed similar concerns to the Guardian but none of them wanted to go public.
The chessboard on which Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi are playing for the world championship title in Dubai. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Yet there are encouraging signs, too. As Houska points out, it is far more common to see women chess players and commentators than only a few years ago. “It’s very important to have that visibility,” she says. “Because if girls have role models, they can start to adjust their expectations and aims.”
The Fide president, Arkady Dvorkovich, also promises he is pushing hard to make the game more welcoming for women. He rattles off a list of changes he has made during his tenure, including more tournaments and increased prize money for women.
The organisation has also designated 2022 as the “Year of Woman in Chess”, however Dvorkovich accepts more can be done to help women progress to the very top. “Around 13-14 years old we find that girls leave while boys continue to play in large numbers. We need to change that. Personally I would also like to see more women in the top 10. But chess is not just about professional play. We have more women across the game now, including Dana Reizniece-Ozola, the former finance minister of Latvia, who is our managing director.”
“We consulted with many chess players, 95% of them supported it,” says Dvorkovich. “We appreciate there are some components of this business that do not look that attractive. But what they’re doing also for health and wellbeing for women is very important. I know it’s a bit controversial, but there are more pluses.”
Polgar also errs on the side of optimism, pointing out that attitudes among most men have shifted from an era when the legendary world champion Bobby Fischer used to dismiss women players as “terrible”, telling them to “keep strictly to the home”.
“Nowadays most of the top players would not dare even to say – or even to think that way,” she says. “Fischer was the most ridiculous. And another world champion, Garry Kasparov, also said some things because he grew up in that kind of environment.
“But when I came in the picture, and I was torturing Garry at the board, little by little he transformed his vision. So this is what I’m saying: many people think that people – or the community – cannot change. But it is possible.”
A question for chess remains, however: is change happening fast enough?
Social protest movements such as #MeToo and #BlackInSTEM have shone a light on the need for greater diversity, equity and inclusion at scientific institutions worldwide. And Nature’s 2021 salary and job satisfaction survey, which drew responses from more than 3,200 working scientists around the world, suggests that there’s much more work to do.
Just 40% of respondents felt that their employers were doing enough to promote diversity, down from 51% in 2018, when the survey last took place. A substantial minority of respondents said they had witnessed colleagues being subjected to discriminatory behaviour, and another sizeable minority said they had experienced such treatment themselves. The self-selected survey (see ‘Nature’s salary and job survey’) included a series of questions that explore attitudes and experiences relating to diversity. Follow-up interviews with selected respondents and free-text comments have helped to fill out the picture.
The survey runs every three years and was last conducted in 2018. It was created together with Shift Learning, a market-research company based in London, and advertised on nature.com, in Springer Nature digital products and through e-mail campaigns. It was offered in English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French and Portuguese. The full survey data sets are available at go.nature.com/3eqcpk9.
The respondents reflect the relative homogeneity in science in some parts of the world. Eighty-two per cent of respondents in the United Kingdom, 81% in Germany and 74% in the United States identified themselves as white.
The free-text comment section exposed conflicting viewpoints on an often polarizing topic. A late-career Asian woman working in geology and environmental sciences at a European university wrote: “Academics like to think of their community as free spirited and innovative, but there is massive systemic discrimination and power hierarchies that ruin people and careers … This is suffocating science and discouraging early-career academics.”
But a white male professor of social sciences in the United States offered a different perspective: “When I say I have experienced and seen gender discrimination, it has always been against males. For example, we were directly told during a job search that we could not hire a white male, even though our relative representation of women and minorities is higher than average for our field. White males have long felt there is little likelihood of approval for sabbaticals or positive promotion decisions from the dean and upper administration.”
Some people think that the renewed emphasis on diversity and inclusion in science is overblown and unnecessary, says Zenobia Lewis, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Liverpool, UK. She’s heard men say that gender-equality initiatives in science, such as the Athena Swan Charter, are no longer necessary because women have made gains. The charter, launched in the United Kingdom in 2005, was introduced in Ireland ten years later, with similar schemes now running in the United States, Canada and Australia. “My response is that it’s about equality for all, not just women,” says Lewis, who identifies as part Persian. “I’m a brown person in ecology, and there aren’t many of us.”
Discrimination
The survey suggests that discrimination remains common in science (see ‘Room for improvement’). Overall, 32% of respondents said they had witnessed discrimination against or harassment of colleagues in their current job. That’s up slightly from the 28% who reported observing such behaviour in 2018. Twenty-seven per cent of respondents said they had personally experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment in their present position. Again, that’s up compared with 2018, when 21% said they had such first-hand experiences.
Unsurprisingly, some groups are more likely than others to feel targeted. Women reported experiencing mistreatment more often than men: 34% to 21%. Workers in academia were twice as likely as those in industry to report such behaviour: 30% to 15%. A woman who is now a staff scientist at a US biomedical company wrote of her experience in academia: “I was bullied and harassed repeatedly at my previous job, and literally nothing there has changed or will ever change. My current job is much nicer, but I will never ever work in an academic setting again. A postdoc in the lab kept touching my hair and the university did absolutely nothing to protect me or stop it.”
Overall, 17% of the women — and 1% of the men — in the survey reported being the target of gender discrimination. Sexism remains rampant, says survey respondent Fiona Simpson, a cancer researcher at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. “Everybody talks about equality in science, but it doesn’t actually happen,” she says. “There are so many articles, so much discussion, but over my 30 years it’s gotten worse.”
Simpson says that sexism was more outward and obvious in her early career, but in her view, the more subtle discrimination of today can be just as damaging. “I’ve watched female academics get upset over the way they’re being treated, or the instability of their roles. When they’re emotional, they’re written off as unstable or hormonal. It’s changed from an overt thing to a type of gaslighting,” she says, referring to manipulative behaviour that makes someone question their own sanity.
Ethnicity can be an important factor too, especially in countries where the scientific workforce is predominantly white. In the United Kingdom, for example, 27 of the 54 respondents who did not identify as white said they had personally experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment on the job. That’s nearly twice the rate reported by 357 white respondents in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the 221 respondents who did not identify as white were also more likely than white colleagues to report such experiences: 33% to 25%.
Among those reporting personal experience of mistreatment, the most commonly cited instances fell under the categories of power imbalances (66%) and bullying (51%). The most commonly reported forms of discrimination were related to gender (34%), age (21%) and race (15%).
Age discrimination was a recurring complaint in the comment section. A government employee in South Africa wrote that “job advancement for older people is also now a huge challenge due to pressure to advance young people”. A self-employed US scientist in the field of astronomy and planetary science wrote: “When I lost my previous job as a result of funding cuts, the great majority of people laid off were older than 50, even though that age group did not comprise a majority of employees. Also, I know three people in that age range who were repeatedly rejected for positions, for which they were extremely well qualified, in favour of younger hires. One of them, who has two PhDs, has given up looking and basically retired early.”
Less than 1% of respondents reported experiencing discrimination against people from sexual and gender minorities; that rate is essentially unchanged compared with the 2018 survey. A South African researcher in ecology and evolution wrote: “As a lesbian, I think my job prospects are better than they would have been just ten years ago because of cultural shifts and also legal changes in South Africa regarding employment equity.”
Only 7% of respondents reported a disability, a reflection of a widely acknowledged lack of representation of this community in scientific fields. Disabled people face particular career challenges in science, says Michelle Moram, a London-based materials scientist who is currently working remotely for Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. In 2010, Moram was diagnosed with a serious autoimmune disorder which would have qualified her for disability protection under the law. Still, she kept the illness hidden for years for fear of jeopardizing her chances of promotion.
A truly diverse research system would employ people from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, but Lewis says people from poorer families remain at a distinct disadvantage. She co-wrote a paper exploring how socioeconomic background as well ethnicity can affect early-career progression in the fields of ecology and evolution (K. M. Wanelik et al. Ecol. Evol.10, 6870–6880; 2020). One finding: early-career researchers from less privileged backgrounds tended to have positions with a teaching component rather than ones solely devoted to research; the latter are often more prestigious for career progression.
Moram, the first member of her family to attend university, says she struggled to find her place in science after moving from University College Cork, Ireland, to take up a PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2003. “My family is what they call ‘underclass’ in the United Kingdom. Part of my journey was learning to pass as a middle-class person. I had to change my accent, learn different vocabulary, wear different clothes — just fake it to be a different person.”
Moram says her background helped motivate her to study especially hard. “I had no idea how anything in the system worked at all. I just decided to work hard at whatever I could,” she says. “It was important for me to get out of home. I was terrified of having to go back home and work in a shop.”
Falling short
A slim majority of survey respondents (51%) felt that their institutions were doing enough to promote gender equity, down from 58% in 2018. Forty-one per cent thought that their place of employment was doing enough to promote ethnic or racial equality, down from 52% in 2018.
It’s not surprising that the number of people who are underwhelmed by their employer’s approach to diversity is growing, says Maria Miriti, a plant ecologist at Ohio State University in Columbus. Miriti wrote a paper (M. N. Miriti BioScience70, 237–242; 2020) exploring strategies to boost the recruitment and retention of people from minority groups in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
“People’s awareness of the breadth of inequality has become more focused in the pandemic,” she says. “There’s pressure to respond. But really getting into the trenches to change the system to promote greater equality and inclusion is hard.” Miriti says that fundamental changes are needed to improve equity in STEM, starting with rethinking how scientists are evaluated and promoted. “We value ‘grantsmanship’ [the ability to secure grants], publications and citations. All three of those factors can be affected by racial and gender discrimination. [Scientists] act like it’s a level playing field. It’s hard for us to accept that recognition can be tied to gender and race.”
Just over one-quarter of respondents felt that their institutions had increased their focus on diversity in response to social justice movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. The former gained momentum following the murder, in May 2020, of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. #MeToo protests accelerated in 2017 in response to sexual-abuse allegations relating to film producer Harvey Weinstein.
Lewis is underwhelmed by institutions’ responses. “There was suddenly this wave of organizations and institutions putting out statements of solidarity,” she says. “It’s about a year on, and I’m still waiting to see how much impact it’s actually going to have, or whether it’s just paying lip service.”
Many universities and companies have established diversity committees to improve the recruitment and retention of members of under-represented groups, but their reach remains limited. Just over 12% of respondents said that they had participated in an institution-wide diversity committee, and 21% weren’t sure if such committees even existed at their place of work. Women were more likely than men to participate in such committees: 14% to 9%.
Miriti thinks that diversity committees can be important drivers for change, especially in academia. “Universities should absolutely have diversity committees,” she says. “There’s too much change that needs to happen if we’re serious about increasing broad participation in our scientific disciplines.” However, she warns that involvement in such committees isn’t always highly valued when it comes to promotion and tenure. Still, she says, the investment in time and energy can pay off by bringing new people to the table. “Women and minorities should be motivated to do this work, no matter what.”
Miriti adds that more people from majority groups — for example, white men in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom — should participate in diversity committees, but only if they’re willing to invest the time to truly address the issues. “It’s important to avoid what some refer to as ‘performative allyship’,” she says.
Some researchers have given up fighting bias. A biomedical postdoctoral researcher of Iranian descent in Canada wrote: “I’ve actually identified some perks to being discriminated against. For one, I don’t have to deal with the responsibilities that come with a more senior title. As long as I stay productive, I will likely have a job and have more time for research. I can walk away with the knowledge that I earned every penny and at times gave more than I took. There is comfort in that.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN SCIENCE?
Free-text comments in Nature’s global salary and job satisfaction survey highlight scientists’ thoughts on the issues they have encountered in their careers. Comments have been edited for length and clarity and, when necessary, translated into English.
• I feel there is too much focus on hiring ‘diverse’ candidates, based on easily measurable criteria (gender, race), and not enough focus on diversity of thought and supporting existing employees through challenges such as maternity and disability. Postdoc in biomedical field, UK.
• I have recently felt that being white and middle-aged is an impediment to seeking positions such as associate dean or dean. Professor in social sciences, USA.
• As a white person I am not offered promotional opportunities so am stuck in same job for over 15 years. Staff scientist in government, South Africa.
• Potential employers do not like to hire females due to the possibility that they will have childcare responsibilities, although this is never stated officially. More than half of postdocs in my department are female but at the principal investigator level, 80–90% of them are (white) men. What happens to all those female postdocs? Postdoc in biomedical field, Denmark.
• I’ve never felt like I have white privilege because I’ve struggled so much and overcome extreme hardships to get where I am. But now I’m still overshadowed because I’m not a person whose race or ethnicity is ‘diverse’. Technician in biomedical field, USA.
• The people who didn’t hire diverse staff/faculty before are still in charge, taking credit for being diverse now. But in fact, they aren’t improving anything. They will continue to hire mediocre elites and complement it with some goofy ‘diverse candidates only’ job openings. Some great researchers will leave academia because of this and history will repeat itself. Assistant professor in social sciences, USA.
• Our university has had university-level, college-level and school-level committees to promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion [EDI] for years now. Although I have been heavily involved at many levels, it has been clear for some time that these have been instituted for the sake of (1) public visibility, and (2) access to research funding (funders have tied funding to EDI initiatives). There is very little real appetite to change what is wrong with the institution. Associate professor in architecture, Ireland.
