Manifesto for Inclusivity

Manifesto for Inclusivity

[Eugenia Cheng]

Dear All,

During CT 2018 we had an informal discussion session about issues of
diversity and inclusion in the Category Theory community and beyond. One
idea that arose was to write some sort of "Manifesto for Inclusivity",
which I then did, but after showing it to a few people I promptly became
too afraid to disseminate it any further.

At the highly galvanising workshop that Emily Riehl organised last month
on "Professional Norms in Mathematics", many participants urged me to
share it, come what may. So here it is.

I'm not quite sure what to suggest is done with it but here are some
suggestions:

a) Conference organisers who believe in it could include it (or a version
of it) on the conference website, in conference announcements, and even
acknowledge it out loud at the start of a conference.

b) Individuals could include it (or a version of it) on their own
webpages, as I have now done here:

http://eugeniacheng.com/inclusivity/

Incidentally, on this page I have also included a link to Spectra, the
association for LGBTQ+ mathematicians, where everyone can sign up to the
Out List or the Ally List.

http://www.lgbtmath.org/

c) Someone more technically adept than me could make a sign-up form so
that we could compile a list of people in the community who agree with
this.  In the meantime, if you'd like to put your name to it you could
email me privately and I could add names to my page manually until the
administration of such an ad hoc system becomes too much for me.


Best wishes,
Eugenia

-----------------

Manifesto for inclusivity in Category Theory

1. We believe in inclusivity, that is, a policy of including people who
might otherwise be excluded, disadvantaged, or marginalised.

2. Some groups are under-represented or are a minority in our community,
and this is not evidence that they are less worthy.

3. We acknowledge many ways in which people can be unfairly disadvantaged
in our community including, but not limited to:

gender and gender identity, race and ethnicity, sexuality, disability,
native language, country, culture, socioeconomic status, institution,
seniority, juniority, job title, access to grants.

4. We believe in actively working together to counteract these
disadvantages.

5. We believe in the value of a wide range of contributions to our
community besides research, including, but not limited to:

- exposition
- teaching
- mentoring
- organising conferences

6. We recognise that we are all more advantaged than some people and less
advantaged than some other people.  We commit to acknowledging our own
advantages and compassionately supporting those who experience
disadvantages different from our own.


[Manifesto for Inclusivity by Eugenia Cheng is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.]

---
Dr Eugenia Cheng
Scientist In Residence: School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Honorary Visiting Fellow of Pure Mathematics: City, University of London
www.eugeniacheng.com
twitter.com/DrEugeniaCheng


[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

Re: Manifesto for Inclusivity

[Michael Healy]

Eugenia,

The manifesto looks great to me.

Mike Healy
University of New Mexico

________________________________
From: Eugenia Cheng <echeng4@saic.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2019 8:53 PM
To: categories@mta.ca <categories@mta.ca>
Subject: categories: Manifesto for Inclusivity

Dear All,

During CT 2018 we had an informal discussion session about issues of
diversity and inclusion in the Category Theory community and beyond. One
idea that arose was to write some sort of "Manifesto for Inclusivity",
which I then did, but after showing it to a few people I promptly became
too afraid to disseminate it any further.

At the highly galvanising workshop that Emily Riehl organised last month
on "Professional Norms in Mathematics", many participants urged me to
share it, come what may. So here it is.

I'm not quite sure what to suggest is done with it but here are some
suggestions:

a) Conference organisers who believe in it could include it (or a version
of it) on the conference website, in conference announcements, and even
acknowledge it out loud at the start of a conference.

b) Individuals could include it (or a version of it) on their own
webpages, as I have now done here:

http://eugeniacheng.com/inclusivity/

Incidentally, on this page I have also included a link to Spectra, the
association for LGBTQ+ mathematicians, where everyone can sign up to the
Out List or the Ally List.

http://www.lgbtmath.org/

c) Someone more technically adept than me could make a sign-up form so
that we could compile a list of people in the community who agree with
this.  In the meantime, if you'd like to put your name to it you could
email me privately and I could add names to my page manually until the
administration of such an ad hoc system becomes too much for me.


Best wishes,
Eugenia


[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

Re: Manifesto for Inclusivity

[Valeria de Paiva]

Dear Eugenia,

Thanks for the "Manifesto for Inclusivity".
I would like to sign it and have already distributed it to the "Women in
Logic" group.
I know you suggested people write to you directly, but I wouldn't like
anyone to think that you're alone in this fight for inclusivity.
Best regards,
Valeria

On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 11:13 AM Eugenia Cheng <echeng4@saic.edu> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> During CT 2018 we had an informal discussion session about issues of
> diversity and inclusion in the Category Theory community and beyond. One
> idea that arose was to write some sort of "Manifesto for Inclusivity",
> which I then did, but after showing it to a few people I promptly became
> too afraid to disseminate it any further.
>
> At the highly galvanising workshop that Emily Riehl organised last month
> on "Professional Norms in Mathematics", many participants urged me to
> share it, come what may. So here it is.
>
> I'm not quite sure what to suggest is done with it but here are some
> suggestions:
>
> a) Conference organisers who believe in it could include it (or a version
> of it) on the conference website, in conference announcements, and even
> acknowledge it out loud at the start of a conference.
>
> b) Individuals could include it (or a version of it) on their own
> webpages, as I have now done here:
>
> http://eugeniacheng.com/inclusivity/
>
> Incidentally, on this page I have also included a link to Spectra, the
> association for LGBTQ+ mathematicians, where everyone can sign up to the
> Out List or the Ally List.
>
> http://www.lgbtmath.org/
>
> c) Someone more technically adept than me could make a sign-up form so
> that we could compile a list of people in the community who agree with
> this.  In the meantime, if you'd like to put your name to it you could
> email me privately and I could add names to my page manually until the
> administration of such an ad hoc system becomes too much for me.
>
>
> Best wishes,
> Eugenia
>

[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]

Re: Manifesto for Inclusivity

[John Huerta]

I love it, Eugenia. Thanks for writing it. I think you found exactly the
right level of generality that we as mathematicians all seek.

I am eager to add my name as a signatory, if I may.

Best,

John Huerta

On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 7:13 PM Eugenia Cheng <echeng4@saic.edu> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> During CT 2018 we had an informal discussion session about issues of
> diversity and inclusion in the Category Theory community and beyond. One
> idea that arose was to write some sort of "Manifesto for Inclusivity",
> which I then did, but after showing it to a few people I promptly became
> too afraid to disseminate it any further.
>
> At the highly galvanising workshop that Emily Riehl organised last month
> on "Professional Norms in Mathematics", many participants urged me to
> share it, come what may. So here it is.
>
> I'm not quite sure what to suggest is done with it but here are some
> suggestions:
>
> a) Conference organisers who believe in it could include it (or a version
> of it) on the conference website, in conference announcements, and even
> acknowledge it out loud at the start of a conference.
>
> b) Individuals could include it (or a version of it) on their own
> webpages, as I have now done here:
>
> http://eugeniacheng.com/inclusivity/
>
> Incidentally, on this page I have also included a link to Spectra, the
> association for LGBTQ+ mathematicians, where everyone can sign up to the
> Out List or the Ally List.
>
> http://www.lgbtmath.org/
>
> c) Someone more technically adept than me could make a sign-up form so
> that we could compile a list of people in the community who agree with
> this.  In the meantime, if you'd like to put your name to it you could
> email me privately and I could add names to my page manually until the
> administration of such an ad hoc system becomes too much for me.
>
>
> Best wishes,
> Eugenia
>

[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]