{"id":13731,"date":"2021-09-08T10:01:50","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T14:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/?page_id=13731"},"modified":"2025-07-16T12:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T16:41:13","slug":"about-bac","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/about-bac\/","title":{"rendered":"About BAC"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>History of the Biology Antiracism Committee<\/h3>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><span>The Biology Antiracism Committee (BAC) was formed in the summer of 2020 by members of the Department of Biology to support members of our community who directly have experienced discriminatory behavior, as well as those who are concerned about injustice in the US and world. Composed of staff, students, and faculty, BAC works with the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/about\/diversity-inclusion-cas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>CAS\u2019 D&amp;I Office<\/span><\/a> <span>as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/community-inclusion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boston University Community and Inclusion<\/a> to ensure that we recruit and support world-class students, staff, and faculty whose experiences and viewpoints embolden the academic endeavor. BAC meets quarterly and structurally has working groups focused on \u201cInclusive Pedagogy and Mentoring\u201d and \u201cRecruitment\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>What We&#8217;ve Done<\/h3>\n<p>Over the past year we have sponsored or co-sponsored the following efforts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>separate town halls for undergraduate and graduate students to express their concerns about racist and other noninclusive behavior at BU and to have the opportunity to offer suggestions to improve diversity within the department<br \/>\nworkshops and seminars on: 1) identifying blindspots, 2) the importance of diversity in the scientific community, 3) teaching about racism in the biology classroom, and 4) recognizing racism in science and medicine.<\/li>\n<li>the development of two new courses that focus on being anti-racist in the health sciences: 1) Analyzing Bias and Discrimination in Medicine, Health, and Science, and 2) Institutional Racism in Health and Science.<\/li>\n<li>funding of an Emerging Scholars Award from the office of Diversity and Inclusion to promote diverse faculty recruitment. The first symposium is planned for September 27, 2021.<\/li>\n<li>planning for an annual Biology Prospective Scholars Preview event to aid in recruiting a diverse graduate student population.<br \/>\nbook club on \u201cSuccessful STEM Mentoring Initiatives for Underrepresented Students\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition, members of BAC have participated in many other workshops and educational events organized by others at BU, as well as external events, to improve our capacity for antiracist work, including (but not limited to) those focused on Inclusive Pedagogy, Building Inclusive Departmental Culture, Wholistic Graduate Recruitment, Diversifying Seminar Series, Diversifying Faculty Recruitment, \u201cPicture A Scientist&#8221; Screening and Campus-Wide Discussion, and Faculty Mentorship.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"button button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/people\/biology-antiracism-committee\/\">Biology Antiracism Committee<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><!--<a class=\"button button-primary\">History<\/a>--><a class=\"button button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/about-bac\/\">About<\/a> <a class=\"button button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/people\/biology-antiracism-committee\/bac-events\/\">Events<\/a><a class=\"button button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/people\/biology-antiracism-committee\/bac-members\/\">Members<\/a><a class=\"button button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/people\/biology-antiracism-committee\/bac-resources\/\">Resources<\/a><a class=\"button button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/people\/biology-antiracism-committee\/bac-working-groups\/\">Working Groups<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>History of the Biology Antiracism Committee The Biology Antiracism Committee (BAC) was formed in the summer of 2020 by members of the Department of Biology to support members of our community who directly have experienced discriminatory behavior, as well as those who are concerned about injustice in the US and world. Composed of staff, students, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10204,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":88,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13731"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20746,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13731\/revisions\/20746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}