Towards decolonising computational sciences
- URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2009.14258v1
- Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 18:48:28 GMT
- Title: Towards decolonising computational sciences
- Authors: Abeba Birhane, Olivia Guest
- Abstract summary: We see this struggle as requiring two basic steps.
grappling with our fields' histories and heritage holds the key to avoiding mistakes of the past.
We aspire for these fields to progress away from their stagnant, sexist, and racist shared past.
- Score: 0.0
- License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
- Abstract: This article sets out our perspective on how to begin the journey of
decolonising computational fields, such as data and cognitive sciences. We see
this struggle as requiring two basic steps: a) realisation that the present-day
system has inherited, and still enacts, hostile, conservative, and oppressive
behaviours and principles towards women of colour (WoC); and b) rejection of
the idea that centering individual people is a solution to system-level
problems. The longer we ignore these two steps, the more "our" academic system
maintains its toxic structure, excludes, and harms Black women and other
minoritised groups. This also keeps the door open to discredited pseudoscience,
like eugenics and physiognomy. We propose that grappling with our fields'
histories and heritage holds the key to avoiding mistakes of the past. For
example, initiatives such as "diversity boards" can still be harmful because
they superficially appear reformatory but nonetheless center whiteness and
maintain the status quo. Building on the shoulders of many WoC's work, who have
been paving the way, we hope to advance the dialogue required to build both a
grass-roots and a top-down re-imagining of computational sciences -- including
but not limited to psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, computer
science, data science, statistics, machine learning, and artificial
intelligence. We aspire for these fields to progress away from their stagnant,
sexist, and racist shared past into carving and maintaining an ecosystem where
both a diverse demographics of researchers and scientific ideas that critically
challenge the status quo are welcomed.
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