Diversity Resources and Demographics

Publications & Reports

  • AGU Honors Program Makes Strides in Diversity Eos Article by Sam Mukasa. Progress includes a new medal focused on developing nations, two Africa awards, and a significant rise in women and international members becoming AGU Fellows, honors nominees, and honorees.
  • Improving Your Success in AGU Honors  Eos article by Jessica Ball, Eric Davidson, Tracey Holloway, Mary Anne Holmes, Judith Ann McKenzie, Samuel Mukasa, Beth Paredes, Carle Pieters, Murugesu Si2018 Honors Cycle Demographicsvapalan, and Jasper Vrugt. To reduce the barriers for engagement and success in this essential scientific enterprise, the American Geophysical Union is working to build a more transparent culture around the award and nomination process.
  • Underrepresentation of Women and Minority Awardees in Geoscience Societies Elements article by Sam Mukasa examining the recipients of awards from the Geochemical Society and its peers on the basis of both race and gender. Mukasa breaks down subconscious and conscious factors that contribute to more men and more people of European ancestry winning than women and people of non-European ancestry, and concludes with methods for committees to counter bias when judging nominations. This article is a fantastic introductory piece on why thinking about diversity matters. (Element Magazine: April 2009, pg. 77-78)
  • Women Count Eos article by Dana Hurley explains how homophily, a subconscious inclination to seek out and/or favor like-minded people, affects the hiring and recruitment rate of women and people from minority groups. (Eos: Vol. 95, No. 44, 4 November 2014, pg. 402-403.)
  • Consider Nominating a Woman for an AGU Award Eos Article by Suzanne O’Connell breaks down the data from the 2012 Union Honors nomination cycle by gender, comparing the rate of nominations of women, especially for Fellows-granting honors, to the percentage of women AGU Members in this piece we published in our newspaper. (Source: Eos)
  • Avoiding Implicit Bias: Best Practices for Award Selection Committees This AWIS paper is step-by-step guide outlines how to reduce the effect of unconscious associations and/or assumptions on every aspect of the award process, from creating explicit criteria for deciding a winner to reaching out to promoting awareness of the award specifically with underrepresented groups. (Source: AWIS in conjunction with ADVANCE and AGU)
  • Suggested Society Actions to Implement the Awards Project AWIS outlines general, overarching priorities for societies promoting greater inclusiveness in awards; this document is a checklist of broad goals for tackling diversity issues. (Source: AWIS in conjunction with ADVANCE and AGU)
  • Searching for Excellence and Diversity: A Guide for Search Committees WISELI By Eve Fine and Jo HandelsmanRelying on both research and experience presenting hiring workshops to search committee members, the authors of this guidebook provide advice and recommendations for conducting an effective faculty search
  • Compiled list of additional implicit bias references

Webinars & Presentations

  • Increasing the Diversity Pool of Nominations for AGU Honors AGU’s Honors and Recognition Committee, in partnership with ESWN (Earth Science Women’s Network) and AGU volunteers hosted this webinar focused on discussing best practices for nominating or being nominated for AGU honors. It is part of a larger AGU effort to support all nominators and nominees and strengthen the long-term diversity of nominations and awardees of AGU’s honors and recognition program.
  • Getting to Fair: Recognizing Implicit Bias and Reducing Its Impact This AGU Honor’s Program Workshop Presentation in partnership with Mary Anne Holmes, Sam Mukasa and Donald Schwert helps those in all geoscience fields identify implicit bias, its effects on Honors and Awards recognition processes, and what can be done to mitigate against it’s negative impact.

Programs