Doing Difference, equity and inclusion in biomedical research

Datum
12. Feb­ru­ar 2024 

CfP for Pan­el „Doing Diver­si­ty: Dif­fer­ence, equi­ty and inclu­sion in bio­med­ical research”, EASST-4S 2024 con­fer­ence, Ams­ter­dam 16–19 July.

Sub­mis­sion dead­line: 12 Feb­ru­ary 2024. 

Con­ven­ers
Giu­lia Sinat­ti, Vri­je Uni­ver­siteit Amsterdam
Eva Ver­nooij, Utrecht University

This pan­el invites sub­mis­sions on mat­ters of diver­si­ty, equi­ty and inclu­sion in bio­med­ical research. We par­tic­u­lar­ly wel­come ethno­graph­ic research that explores the ‘mak­ing and doing’ of diver­si­ty in prac­tice, and trans­for­ma­tions this pro­duces for researchers, insti­tu­tions and oth­er stakeholders.

Diver­si­ty, equi­ty and inclu­sion are now wide­ly used terms in the world of bio­med­ical research. Fund­ing agen­cies and research insti­tu­tions are increas­ing­ly requir­ing the inclu­sion of under­rep­re­sent­ed indi­vid­u­als in bio­med­ical research, empha­siz­ing diver­si­ty across var­i­ous dimen­sions, includ­ing race, eth­nic­i­ty, health­care access, income or socioe­co­nom­ic sta­tus, and age. In this pan­el we wish to explore what ‘doing diver­si­ty’ entails in prac­tice for those involved in bio­med­ical research. We seek to engage with inter­dis­ci­pli­nary schol­ar­ship from Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy Stud­ies, Crit­i­cal Glob­al Health and Decolo­nial and Fem­i­nist thought, to unpack how diver­si­ty is con­struct­ed, enact­ed, and prac­ticed through­out the var­i­ous stages of bio­med­ical research (fun­da­men­tal, trans­la­tion­al and clin­i­cal research). Sub­mis­sions explor­ing how diver­si­ty mat­ters, or comes to mat­ter, in bio­med­ical research may address one of the fol­low­ing areas: 

Oper­a­tional­iz­ing Diver­si­ty: How is diver­si­ty trans­lat­ed into action with­in the con­text of fun­da­men­tal and trans­la­tion­al research? How is it incor­po­rat­ed in clin­i­cal tri­al set­tings? And how does ethnog­ra­phy con­tribute to under­stand­ing the broad­er social, med­ical, eth­i­cal and polit­i­cal con­se­quences of oper­a­tional­iza­tion choices?

Diver­si­ty in Glob­al Health Col­lab­o­ra­tions: Inves­ti­gat­ing the inter­sec­tion of diver­si­ty and glob­al health col­lab­o­ra­tions, how does doing diver­si­ty man­i­fest in (transna­tion­al) bio­med­ical research col­lab­o­ra­tions? What are the prac­ti­cal and polit­i­cal impli­ca­tions of dif­fer­ent forms of col­lab­o­ra­tion? What can we learn from under­stand­ing ethno­graph­i­cal­ly the lived expe­ri­ences of col­lab­o­rat­ing parties?

Insti­tu­tion­al­iz­ing Diver­si­ty: Efforts to insti­tu­tion­al­ize con­cepts like diver­si­ty, equi­ty and inclu­sion have impli­ca­tions for mul­ti­ple stake­hold­ers in the broad­er bio­med­ical research land­scape. What are these impli­ca­tions for research par­tic­i­pants, med­ical researchers, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies and gov­ern­ment agen­cies? How can ethnog­ra­phy help hold togeth­er the expe­ri­ences and prac­tices of such diverse stakeholders?

With the ques­tions above as our com­pass, we invite schol­ars to con­tribute their insights, fos­ter­ing an ethno­graph­i­cal­ly root­ed under­stand­ing of the rela­tion­al dynam­ics that sur­round ‘doing diver­si­ty’ in bio­med­ical research.

Find out more about the broad­er EASST-4S con­fer­ence. To pro­pose your paper, fol­low this link.