Inclusive

There's not one silver bullet. And there're a lot of different avenues to push. One, I think, is availability. When you require people to come to you for science engagement, then by default, you're eliminating a lot of the population that can't get there. Even down to the way the museums have photos of their engagement. Is it a distinguished, non-minority leader in a room full of little brown kids? There are different cues, conscious and subconscious, that we embody. And I will say, that the majority of science communication, is just recognizing, that despite your best intention there are tons of ways that you're still very exclusive. In terms of the ways that you connect with audiences that you think are in need, even down to deciding who is the person in need?

I think is really awesome, because it's going into an environment that's not one, that we as providers of learning opportunities, we don't own those spaces. But we can go into them, if we're respectful about it, and actually provide some opportunities. And so, that's what I think a lot of organizations are trying to figure out now. This diverse audience that we all want to have be part of, and see the value in what we do, in terms of providing learning opportunities, it's not going to happen in our spaces, because they're not their spaces.

But based on the conversations I had with attendees there, this idea of identity, people being able to express who they are, and this being a safe place to do so, or who they aspire to be. I heard comments, about a sense of safety, and belonging. There's a subset who are outsiders, but they found an inclusive, welcoming group. There's definitely a strong culture of fandom. Of just being able to say, "I love this thing," and being able to share it, and connect with others.

I felt very welcome there. People felt like it was their place, and I don't have a specific anecdote or something that I overheard as part of that but whether you were in costume or whether you weren't, didn't really matter. It was all this congenial scene and people were having fun and they were learning things, and so this is a fantastic environment for people to learn in on their own terms, and that's what the whole informal thing is about, and it just is so ripe for that and I saw so many people learning things that were interesting to them, and they were driving that learning and providing more opportunities for that that are fun, and some of it was poignant. Some of the sessions that you guys did with the LGBTQ focus and the women's focus, those were awesome. Not being an active member of either of those communities but living with them and around them, I was welcomed there too. It was super cool. I think that it's a pretty big tent at this place and we need to take advantage of it, not just in Long Beach but as a typology and I'll be really interested to see what you guys find out from Dragon Con in a totally different part of the country and whether it had the same kind of vibe to it.

It was a wildly diverse crowd. If we had that kind of diverse crowd in museums we'd be really happy. That's the overall reaction, is that this is an audience to an event that you could make some really... It's got great potential for making connections to this audience to the STEM content and the connections to audiences that the National Science Foundation and other agencies and foundations would love to do. So it seemed really primed

I'd like to bring up a point. So on my way there, I took the MARTA, and what I saw was so many different kinds of people who weren't the typical television definition of a nerd, dressed up in their costumes, and because it's free and it's public it's really accessible, and because it's on the MARTA line and downtown, there's fewer barriers to entry. And so little Latin X kids were on the train in their superhero costumes, and you could see some of the teenagers dressed up as their TV shows. And I think in all things there should be a diversity in approach, and if we look at DragonCon as just one tool of communication of science then ... You have a whole group that does tons of different kinds of science, so I guess what I'm trying to say is, in so much as DragonCon is just one avenue of science communication or of science engagement, I think it's actually really inclusive, and I guess just from my experience on the MARTA, there were people that I just did not expect to see excited about DragonCon, and they were hype and loud and building their excitement as they got closer. I'm just reading myself at this point, but to the extent that this isn't the only way you connect with audiences, I think it's just one really, really effective tool to reach people.

Yeah, I think that one of the things, from studying science communication, that I have seen over and over again is this idea that it doesn't matter, that the concept of science and being a scientist is easy for a lot of people to remove from community and cultural contexts, which I think is wrong, but I think that a lot of people do it. And so it is always gratifying to see when people are willing to do those outreach things and say, "No, it's not all academic ivory towers. Science is made up of communities too, and it matters." Not just communities, but minorities. And I think a lot of minorities feel it quite intensely when they're not represented, and they don't feel like they're seen.

I think I've just come up with another implicit message from the activity, which is that science is for everyone. There was no one from the crowd that was excluded from participating and engaging. Yeah, I would agree with that. I was just thinking. Yeah, this is Michelle again. That's what I was thinking earlier, that a message that I personally really love that you belong. You belong however you identify, and you belong in science, however you identify.

And my one big takeaway I had was just the accessibility and inclusivity aspect of the events of a free, open public experience that is not ticketed and it's not limited and it's not necessarily directed to a specific audience. But yeah, it's an opportunity for people's varying identities to come together.

So one of the things that come up a lot from me in the past 18 months, is not just as an adult, because it feels like it had a spotlight shone on it is the idea of inclusion, who is included, where they're included. And the fact that a lot of people are not necessarily... I know our event, I'm pretty sure that people will come, they'll enjoy them, but they don't necessarily feel free to be themselves. And something like Pride and Dragon Con, people go there because they're expressing themselves, this is a huge event, but it's a safe space for them. And it's somewhere where they don't have to be someone else, they just to be themselves in all their glory, wherever that is. Just our event, I'm sure people come and they code switch, they don't get to be themselves. So I think there's something unique there by taking something in situ, to something that's happening where we have to adapt to the situation as the people create new experience.