The Center for Communicating Science (CCS) was well represented at this year’s Cultivating Ensembles conference, with a presentation and workshop on seven CCS-funded SciArt collaborations, a talk on the center’s Black Excellence in STEM oral history project, and a performance by CCS director Patty Raun in a stage reading of a new play, “The Great Understanding” by Jennifer Joy.

    Graduate students Amber Wendler, Korin Rex Jones, and Mika Pagani gave a presentation titled “Using Oral History Interviews to Expand Perspectives and Preserve Historically Excluded Narratives in STEM.” Wendler, Jones, and Pagani are three of six graduate students who have been interviewing Black scientists as part of a center-funded oral history project. They walked the audience through the basic steps of planning and conducting interviews, described their goals, and presented some of the common themes that they have found in the 19 interviews conducted thus far. 

    The oral history project got underway in the spring of 2021 with workshops facilitated by Jessica Taylor in the history department and Ren Harman and Jeff Flanagan of University Libraries, all of whom have worked extensively with oral histories at various points of the process and lent their expertise to the Black Excellence in STEM project.

    The interview recordings and transcripts will be archived in Virginia Tech’s Special Collections, and the graduate students involved in the project are brainstorming about other ways to share the interviews. Themes they have identified include paths to STEM careers, identity and intersectionality, advice to young scientists, overcoming challenges, the importance of mentorship, finding supportive communities, historically Black colleges and universities, extending love, stories of excellence, and experiences of being a “first,” an “only,” and an outsider. 

    “Our project aimed at elucidating some of the triumphs and tribulations faced by Black people pursuing careers in science from a variety of perspectives,” explained the graduate student interviewers in their conference abstract.

    CCS director Patty Raun, associate director Carrie Kroehler, and civil and environmental engineering faculty member Nina Stark presented “SciArt Collaborations: Joys, Challenges, and Lessons Learned.” Cultivating Ensembles conference attendees participated in sample exercises from the center’s May 2021 day-long “collaboration incubator” workshop and learned about the seven projects that resulted from that incubator. Stark spoke to the insights she gained from her collaborations in two projects, with an aerial arts performer and with a dancer. 

    Interested readers can find more information about the SciArt projects elsewhere in our newsletter:

The Urgent Marvels of Coastal Science

“Draw a Scientist” Musical Performance

Transnational Resiliency: Think Like an Aspen

Bluehead Chub Research at Deerfield Trail

Ping Pong Progress: Economic System Change Through Community Engagement

Multimedia Expanding Art Brings Attention to Invasive Species

Dance Workshops for Engineering Students

This photo shows a young white woman doing a split in mid air suspended by red ribbons. Beneath her stand six other people with their arms around one another smiling at the camera. The backdrop is trees.
Civil and environmental engineering faculty member Nina Stark, standing at center, spoke at the Cultivating Ensembles conference about her experience collaborating with aerial artist Lynsey Wyatt to help communicate with coastal communities affected by climate change. Photo courtesy of Nina Stark.

    The Cultivating Ensembles conference organizers also provided attendees with a stage reading of Jennifer Joy's newest play, "The Great Understanding." Inspired by a class Joy took, “Climate Change, Fiction and Literature,” taught by Professor Devin Zuber at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, the play represents an attempt by Joy to answer a question she struggles with: "How do I write about the climate crisis in way as to overcome that sense of paralyzing improbability, and help audiences see the crisis, move into acceptance and begin constructive responses?"

    Center director Patty Raun played one of the four roles in the play for the conference performance.