EDI/Outreach

I believe that physics should be for everyone. Regardless of background or identity, anyone should feel empowered to become a physicist. But, unfortunately, systemic structures and culture have made physics one of the least diverse of all STEM fields. Moreover, physics is often portrayed as unattainable in popular media; a discipline reserved for lone geniuses. I am working to change this.

I believe it is crucial to communicate physics topics to general audiences. Regardless of where you are on your physics journey, you should be able to understand the questions that excite physicists like myself and how we are going about improving our understanding of the universe. Along these lines, I recently had the opportunity to give a public talk about my research at Café KITP. This talk series is hosted by the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics in collaboration with SOhO restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara. A recording of my talk is available here.

I am also passionate about furthering Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in physics. I am currently a member of the Joint Labor Management Committee’s Accessibility Working Group, which is a collaboration between University of California (UC) and labor representatives to improve access needs and disability services across all 10 UC campuses. I am also committed to implementing strategies to cultivate the physics-identity of underrepresented physicists, which has been shown to improve retention rates and outcomes. To this end, I have over 6 years of mentoring experience through a variety of organizations (UNITY, PACE, KITP’s graduate fellowship program). Additionally, I was a co-author on a physics education research project studying the benefits of the Rising Stargirls educational program on the science-identity of middle-school girls from underrepresented backgrounds. This work was recently published in the Astronomy Education Journal [1]. Rising Stargirls is an educational organization encouraging BIPOC middle-school girls to learn, explore, and discover the universe. Their workshops teach physics and astronomy concepts using theater, writing, and art techniques, providing an avenue for self-expression combined with scientific engagement.

For a complete list of my EDI and Outreach activities, see my CV.

[1] Rising Stargirls: Benefits of a Creative Arts-Based Approach to Astronomy Education for Middle-School Girls from Underrepresented Groups. M. Silverman, A. L. Shields, J. N. Howard, V. Venkatesan, K. Whitfield, Astronomy Education Journal, 4(1), 2024. https://doi.org/10.32374/2024.4.1.089ra.