questions & tensions

re: STEM is a space to discuss the inner workings of the scientific community as well as the global impact of science and technology. However, there are always ways that this space is limited or as I’ll call them, “points of tension,” in which re: STEM and myself are limited in connecting social justice and STEMM.

On STEMM

1. I sometimes use science as a placeholder for STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine.) This issue is largely due to “STEMM” not rolling off the tongue as easily as just “science.” While these fields are closely aligned and have many overlapping skillsets, each field also has unique strengths and perspectives and it is dishonest to conflate them all in some common ground acronym. While there are occasional slip ups, I do my best to not make this mistake in my writing.
2. In most publications and government agencies, STEM canonically stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.” As others have done so in the past, the deliberate addition of “Medicine” to STEMM because much of medicine has historically been and continues to be intertwined with life sciences, technology, engineering, and math. Since the acronym STEM is already an artificial grouping that was started by governments to organize career fields and organize educational content, I don’t think that the inclusion of “Medicine” is inappropriate.
3. Colloquially, the acronym STEM itself has become a placeholder to mean “not humanities.” This distinction is one harmful to both STEM fields and humanities fields because core skills are shared amongst all fields including (but not limited to): critical thinking, critical reading, communication, and creativity.
4. At the same time, I’m leveraging the highly visible and already institutionalized STEM acronym for branding and search purposes. Please bear with me in its imperfection.

 
On social justice

1. Social justice is complex, throughout history and in modern times. While it’s hard to nail down an absolute definition, an accessible definition of social justice can be pulled off the first hit from Google:
   1. Social justice - Justice in distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.
2. The above definition is broad and vague, and many other tracks in academic theory and in community practice have expanded upon the dimensions of peoples, economics, environments, and other societal facets that can be impacted by inequality.
3. I try to write about social justice as it relates to STEMM by using two major modes: production and impact. Production pertains to how STEMM knowledge is created within institutions; impact extends to how STEMM knowledge and innovations are disseminated globally and the effect those have upon communities. Again, boiling social justice down to “production” and “impact” is a tad reductionist, but I think a necessary reduction to provide a basic framework in contextualizing STEMM in larger social and global systems.

 
On community engagement

1. A common issue in academia is to postulate on inequality in communities but rarely sustain prolonged engagement with affected communities to rectify inequality.
2. This site, re: STEM, is meant to be space for STEMM-adjacent folks and the general public to collectively process and define equality for STEMM impact.
3. That being said, I also don’t want this space to be one that stays online and where these topics and ideas remain behind the anonymity of the keyboard. I think there is infinite importance in bringing these discussions and practices into labs and institutions through peer-to-peer and community engagement.

 
On my positionality

1. I’m not an expert in any STEMM field, nor am I an expert in social justice. I have experience as a life science researcher, as a student in academia, and as a member of my respective communities. Academic accolades, while helpful in symbolizing content expertise, do not encompass all working knowledge of STEMM and social justice throughout the world. Even so, absolute content expertise does not preclude discussion within STEMM communities nor progressive action toward equitable spaces.
2. There are other amazing people and organizations online as well as offline who talk about diversity and equality in STEMM and communities! My voice is one of many and not by any means some end all be all definer of any topics to be raised in re: STEM.