2021 ESA Annual Meeting (August 2 - 6)

WK 17 Improving Workplace Climate: Strategies for Responding to Harassment and Other Hostile Behaviors

3:30 PM-5:00 PM
Session Organizer:
Anne E. Kelly
Harassment and bullying endanger the professional and personal well-being of individuals and their communities and contributes to hostile climates in science and academic workplaces. These behaviors can exploit differences in religion, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, and gender identity and are especially toxic when perpetrated by people in positions of power, such as supervisors or advisors. Our goal is to raise awareness of why these behaviors are so prevalent in academia and in scientific disciplines, discuss initiatives to address harassment as research misconduct, and present practical strategies for reducing instances of hostile behaviors and for supporting its targets. As a result of this session, participants will be able to identify: different ways in which harassment can manifest in research environments; strategies for bystander intervention, and resources for cultural change in academic institutions and professional societies. This 90-minute session will consist of: 1) 15-minute introduction, 2) 15-minute training of bystander intervention strategies, 3) 40-minute discussion of real world scenarios and active practice of bystander intervention, and 4) 20-minute discussion and final debriefing. The information section will present data on the problem and examples of how professional societies are addressing harassment through promoting cultural and institutional change. The training section will present bystander intervention strategies. In the final section, participants will discuss their response to real scenarios and practice intervention strategies in small, moderated groups. Finally, a group discussion will allow for follow-up questions and general debriefing of this sensitive topic. This workshop is part of ADVANCEGeo, a NSF-funded project. Those that pre-registered for this workshop during the ESA registration also need to register for the zoom link at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUsfuirrjsoHtdOtO7XRa7i_RXHeUM2m4jr