URGE Pod of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) at Cornell University

In the spring of 2021, a group of EAS department members formed a ‘pod’ to participate in the NSF-funded Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) curriculum [https://urgeoscience.org/]. URGE organized a series of biweekly readings and expert interviews aimed at deepening our knowledge of the effects of racism on the participation and retention of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in Geoscience. Pods from over 300 institutions around the world participated.

The pod produced a set of ‘deliverables’ in which we considered ways to make department policies more anti-racist; these can be found online [https://urgeoscience.org/pods/cornell-earth-and-atmospheric-sciences/]. The pod continues to work on how these ideas can be integrated into the policies and practices of the department, and welcomes all interested participants.