Speakers: Laura Martin, Scott Mirabile, Yael Niv
Description
A two-page letter - an evaluation for graduate school, for a faculty position, or for awarding tenure - can make or break a career. Recommendation-letter writers thus hold immense power. This power has outsized impact on Black academics and other scholars with marginalized identities, whose contributions to science are often under appreciated, leading to less enthusiastic letters and lower acceptance and promotion rates. In this presentation, part of the Global Growing Up In Science Mentoring Series, we proposed a set of practical steps for writing inclusive, anti-racist (and anti-sexist) recommendation letters, based on this paper: https://psyarxiv.com/nkxhs/. We hope these recommendations will help ongoing efforts to move toward an inclusive academia that appreciates and rewards diverse ways of doing, learning and knowing.