Inclusive Astronomy 2 will discuss the current state of the profession and make recommendations to feed into the 2020 Decadal Survey. The selected talks focus on solutions to key challenges facing under-represented groups. A primary goal of the conference is to maximize representation by minoritized and historically marginalized groups. Attendance is limited, but within those limits, we have achieved that goal, with ~37% of the invitees people of color, 64% gender minority and 20% deaf, neurodiverse and/or persons with a disability. Details are given below. We invite you to join with us in making the conference a success, whether in person or remotely, and working with us to continue the conversation to IA3 and beyond.
TIMING AND LOCATION
The meeting is scheduled for fall 2019 to enable community discussions that can feed information and recommendations directly into the 2020 Decadal Review at the start of that process. Delaying the meeting by 6 months or more defeats that purpose. The meeting will be held in the 180-seat STScI Bahcall Auditorium, the largest accessible conference room available. Moving to a different location would incur substantial additional infrastructure costs for attendees.
TALK SELECTION
There are two main threads to the meeting: developing input for the Decadal survey (primarily day 1); and identifying actions to implement recommendations from the first Inclusive Astronomy conference (day 2). The SOC received and reviewed 90 abstracts for proposed talks. The 21 speakers selected for presentations and panels proposed topics that focus on forward-looking actions to support the community.
ATTENDEE SELECTION OVERVIEW
We wanted to ensure a fair process to apply to attend the conference so we decided to use pre-registration rather than a first-come, first-served approach. We asked prospective attendees to self-identify demographically; the categories were intentionally broad to avoid asking for detailed, and possibly individually-identifiable, characteristics. We used the Entrofy code to select ~130 additional participants from the pool of 266 pre-registrants. We explored a number of options, outlined in the attached report, and chose to select representatives from all demographics groups that pre-registered so that a cross-section of the community could be present. We did not select based on reputation since that requires personal knowledge and is likely to lead to subjective bias – under this approach, everyone within a particular demographic group or intersectionality has the same probability of receiving an invitation to the conference.
The demographic groups listed in the Table were favored in the assignment process: the target fractions for each of those groups in Entrofy were set using the pre-registered fractions; once those targets were achieved additional invitees were selected from the remaining pre-registrants. As a result, self-identified minorities make up a higher fraction of the final invitees. The pre-registrant pool demographic numbers and those selected by Entrofy are summarized below.
Table 1: Demographic categories used in the Entrofy selection
Category | Number of pre-registrants | % of pre-registrants | Target percentage set in Entrofy | Number selected | Percentage of selected |
Total | 266 | -- | 57% | 152 | -- |
POC, or otherwise a racial or ethnic minority | 89 | 33.3% | 33.3% | 57 | 37.5% |
Gender minority | 171 | 64.0% | 64.0% | 116 | 76.3% |
Trans and/or nonbinary | 20 | 7.5% | 7.5% | 13 | 8.6% |
Sexual orientation minority | 73 | 27.3% | 27.3% | 50 | 32.9% |
Deaf, neurodiverse, and/or person with a disability | 44 | 16.5% | 16.5% | 31 | 20.4% |
Career stage: early* | 166 | 62.2% | 53% | 80 | 52.6% |
Career stage: middle + late | 79 + 20 = 99 | 29.6% + 7.5% = 37.1% | 38% + 9% = 47% | 58 + 14 = 72 | 38.2% + 9.2% = 47.4% |
Location: Western Europe | 4 | 1.5% | 2% | 3 | 2.0% |
Location: outside US/Canada/Western Europe | 6 | 2.25% | 2% | 4 | 2.6% |
*This cap was set to ensure early-career participants could be financially supported by supplementing their costs with fees from the mid- to late-career participants and from grants received.
The proportion of people who did not identify as a minority along any of these axes, or did not answer these optional demographic questions was 43 of 266 pre-registrants, ~16%. The number that ended up being selected to participate in the conference as a result of the constraints outlined above was 12 of 152 selected participants, ~8%.
POSTERS
All conference attendees are invited to submit posters which be made available electronically during the meeting.
FUTURE MEETINGS
We realize that many people are disappointed that they will not be able to participate in the Inclusive Astronomy 2 conference. We understand the contradiction between the goals of an inclusivity conference and the reality that not everyone who wants to attend can do so. The inclusive community has at least doubled in size since IA1. The increase in the voices seeking to be heard and contributing to the discussion around inclusion since IA1 is inspiring. It is clear that the community is looking for and needs more frequent opportunities to share their experiences. We encourage everyone to build on IA2 and start planning now for a larger-scale meeting, IA3, possibly held in conjunction with the AAS meeting in the summer of 2020.
The IA2 SOC and LOC
Participant selection procedures
Entrofy for IA2 - simulated sample.ipynb
If you have any questions regarding the participant selection prior to this report being distributed, please contact the committee (inclusion2@stsci.edu ).
