Project DIVINE

Project Divine: Resources for Highlighting DIverse Voices In NEuroscience Education

[[Still prepping to officially launch this project.  This is a draft and a placeholder, and it is subject to change]]
 

Project Divine is a Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience project to crowd-source teaching materials that can be used by all neuroscience educators to highlight diverse voices and contributions in neuroscience.

  • You can browse Project Divine preprints here find resources that you can incorporate into your own classes.  Each resource provides some biographical information, an exemplar paper with notes, and a topic classification.  
  • You can contribute to Project Divine--this is a living and ongoing project, and we welcome additional resources and contributions.
  • You can help organize Project Divine--we need editors to help solicit, review, and collate resources.
  • You can help improve Project Divine-- we welcome comments/corrections on resources, nominations for additional resources to develop, and other feedback.
  • To contribute to Project Divine, email divine@funfaculty.org and/or request to join the Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/fundivine
 

Project Outcomes:

  • FUN will maintain this online, searchable catalog of pre-prints, making it easy for any neuroscience educator to find and incorporate research and biographies from diverse neuroscientists into their teaching. 
  • Initial JUNE article -- Contributors and editors plan a JUNE article to formally introduce the project and highlight initial contributions.  This is planned for 6 months after launch to provide time to broaden participation and grow the pool of resources.  The JUNE article will focus on the goals, pedagogical benefits, and uses.  It may include a list of contributed resources, abstracts, or even full pieces/examples (this will depend, to some extent, on the number of resources generated by that time).  Authorship on this initial publication will include all resources authors and editors, all ordered alphabetically.
  • Continued highlights - Project organizers will work with FUN exec board and JUNE editorial board to continue to highlight contributions as they become available.
 

Project Organization:

  • Project Editors - Project editors can be any active FUN member.  If joining FUN represents a barrier for your participation, please check with a current project editor for possible solutions.
  • Project Contributors - Anyone can contribute a resource to this project--you do not need to be an active FUN member nor a neuroscientist.  In fact, we welcome contributions from outside perspectives and disciplines (history of science, sociology of science, etc.).  Resources are, though, narrowly focused on teaching of neuroscience, so please be sure to read and carefully follow the guidelines on resources.
  • Organization
    • Communication - Via this google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/fundivine
    • Hack-a-thons - Project editors will organize a hack-a-thon at least once per year (probably online).  These sessions will help contributors set aside some dedicated time to nominate and develop new resources for the project.  Hopefully the first hack-a-thon will be during the planned 2020 online FUN conference.
 

Contributions

  • Project Divine collects and organizes resources to highlight diverse contributions in neuroscience.
  • A typical resource will showcase an important contribution to neuroscience, providing both some biographical background and some context for reading and teaching about that contribution (see examples).  Other formats/ideas could also be considered (e.g. an overview of teaching the neuroscience of stereotypes).   To help instructors find resources for their class, resources will also provide classifications in terms of class level (intro, intermediate, or capstone) and broad neuroscience topic (e.g. learning an memory, development, etc.)
  • What counts as diverse?  Our goal is not to narrowly define diversity nor to impose monolithing/simplistic labels on those who have contributed to neuroscience.  It is clear that in the history of science, some groups have not only been under-represented but have been actively discriminated against, silenced, and/or otherwise marginalized.  This includes, but is certainly not limited to, people of color, the native and indigeneous peoples of the Americas and Australia, women, LGBTQ scientists, and more.
  • Are these resources about the science or about the people who did it?  Yes.  Some entries might emphasize the key scientific contribution being made.  Others might emphasize the personal story of the scientists.  Or both.  The key guiding principle in developing a resources is considering what will be useful and helpful for our students, and there are multiple goals here--to see the past and growing contributions of diverse peoples to neuroscience and to feel represented in these efforts, to learn about the systematic oppression that was built into the scientific enterprise, and to become engaged in the active work of making neuroscience a more just and equitable research community.
 

Developing a Contribution

  • Start by proposing the contribution and researcher on the project discussion board.  This is an important step for avoiding duplication of effort.
  • Next, for a living researcher, it is worth reaching out to obtain their support for writing up their contribution for this collection.  This should not be done in a way that burdens the researcher--by expecting them to provide details on their research or biography.   You should offer to provide a draft for their feedback (if desired) before submission.
  • Research and write.  Contributions are meant to be guides for incorporating materials into neuroscience instruction.  This means they do not need to be full-scale academic histories (though that would be cool).  Resources should be accurate, carefully sourced, and detailed enough that another instructor can read and understand the context and adopt into their own courses. 
 

Review Process

  • There will be an initial review process by 1-2 editors.
  • After initial review, submissions will be posted as pre-prints to the FUN website to solicit additional comments and feeback.
  • Submissions will be bundled into highlights for submission and review at JUNE every 6-12 months, depending on volume of contributions.