Our Work
To best understand disciplinary inclusion issues and develop solutions, the Disciplinary Inclusion Task Force was led by a Steering Committee of conservation professionals who support and advise three research teams:
Conclusion of the Disciplinary Inclusion Task Force
The Disciplinary Inclusion Task Force has successfully concluded its work. If you have any questions or would like additional information about the task force’s initiatives, please contact Sophia Winkler-Schor.
As part of its efforts, the task force contributed significant research to advancing disciplinary diversity and inclusion within conservation science and practice. Below are two key publications resulting from their work:
1. This first paper shows that while biological scientist members see SCB as inclusive and equitable, social scientist members and members from marginalized backgrounds do not. Moreover, non-member social scientists perceive SCB as focusing on biological sciences and exclusive of other sciences. Read it here.
Winkler-Schor, S., Eyster, H. N., Lobo, D., Redmore, L., Wright, A. J., Lukasik, V. M., Chávez-Páez, W., Tully, B., Beard, S., Blount-Hill, K.-L., Christen, C., & Nyssa, Z. (2024). Enhancing disciplinary diversity and inclusion in conservation science and practice based on a case study of the Society for Conservation Biology. Conservation Biology, 38, e14395. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14395
The second paper uses an epistemic justice lens to develop a framework for integrating disciplinary diversity and inclusion within conservation organizations, using our study of SCB as a case-study. Read it here.
Nyssa, Z., Winkler-Schor, S., Lobo, D., Eyster, H. N., & Wright, A. J. (2024). A framework for promoting disciplinary diversity and inclusion through epistemic justice. Conservation Biology, 38, e14409. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14409
Members Team
The Members Team charges forward with their investigation into the barriers and facilitators of SCB membership. In few words, their task is to understand how SCB can best support and include members from all conservation disciplines.
Research activity highlights: Compile and analyze available SCB member data to identify gaps in data and membership; design and implement member interviews; launch and analyze SCB member survey.
Non-members Team
The Non-members Team seeks to uncover the professional and disciplinary identities of potential members. Their task is to understand how the SCB can better broaden their global membership by attracting new conservation scholars and practitioners to the SCB.
Research activity highlights: Identify and recruit potential members for designed surveys, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups; review the literature on diversity and inclusion in organizations, like the SCB; generate social media datasets e.g. from Twitter bios.
Institutional History Team
The Institutional History Team looks at the foundation and the future of the Society. Through understanding the founding principles and investigating the development path SCB has taken, we can better understand levers for altering the direction of SCB to foster disciplinary diversity. This Team helps us understand who we were, who we are, and who we want to become.
Research activity highlights: Unstructured interviews with key SCB leadership (current and past); understand the SCB vision for disciplinary diversity via a content analysis of SCB’s strategic plans; review available documents (conference abstracts, publications, etc.) to find out how disciplinary representation has changed over time.