What we do
JEDI organises and participates in activities on various topics related to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Our core activity is the monthly meeting for early career professionals. We also organise events for employees and students at our department and sometimes extend the invitation to our faculty or the whole university. Some selected highlights include the development of our department’s Fieldwork Code of Conduct, screenings of Picture a Scientist for our employees and students, involvement in a UiT rainbow lanyard initiative, and hosting a workshop on Effective Communication and Interaction in the Workplace for employees at our faculty.
Recurring events
We have two types of recurring meetings, which alternate each month:
JEDI ECP Meetings — A 60-minute assembly of the Early Career Professionals group. This is our most formal meeting format, where we share updates from ongoing initiatives and nominate working groups for future plans.
Cookies & chat — A relaxed 45-minute chat with baked treats. We check in with the attendees and then have a discussion on a JEDI-relevant topic, inspired by a recent experience or the JEDI Box of Questions.
Initiatives
First release of the Working Environment Values and Resources in Spring 2025. See more at the Working Environment at IG page.
Rainbow lanyard initiative in Autumn 2023, aiming to increase awareness and show support for LGBTQ+ people by distributing rainbow-coloured lanyards to staff and students. Project led by Marius Haugland-Grange (Department of Chemistry) and funded by the UiT Equality and Diversity Committee.
First release of the Fieldwork Code of Conduct in Spring 2022 and subsequest updates. Learn more at our Fieldwork Code of Conduct page.
Events
*For employees at the Department of Geosciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, if not noted otherwise.
Workshops
2025.02.17 - Workshop on Effective communication and interaction in the workplace (Kjell Morten Brendøy, Puzzle Learning). Aimed at all employees at UiT and funded by the UiT Working Environment Committee (welfare funding).
2023.04.27 - Workshop: Updating the Fieldwork Code of Conduct. All employees and students at the department were invited.
2022.04.27 and 2022.05.04 - Workshops: Developing Fieldwork Code of Conduct. All employees at the department were invited.
2021.05.10 - Workshop: Welfare in the field (Jerika Heinze, The Fieldwork Initiative). Joining us were also Prof. Charlotte Damm (Dept. of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology), Prof. Marit Reigstad (Dept. of Arctic and Marine Biology), and Prof. Karin Andreassen (Director of CAGE). The event was organized together with the UiT Equality and Diversity Committee (Likestilling- og mangfoldsutvalget) and aimed at students and researchers at UiT who perform and manage fieldwork.
Seminars
2023.02.14 - IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast: Making sense of “Diversity” in the Nordic Academia. Presentation (Melina Duarte, Dept. of Psychology) and discussion. JEDI was invited to participate in local event at the Faculty of Science and Technology (NT-fak), organized by the NordCO2 Consortium in collaboration with CAGE and the AKMA project.
2023.01.20 - Webinar: The Legacy of Colonialism in Geoscience (Assoc. Prof. Sarah Greene, University of Birmingham).
2021.04.30 - Webinar: Representation, Racism, and Barriers to Participation in the Geological Sciences in the UK (Prof. Christopher Jackson, University of Manchester).
2021.03.08 - Webinar: Power relations and the lack of gender balance in academia (Prof. Anna Wahl, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm). Joining us for a panel debate were also Assoc. Prof. Melina Duarte (Dept. of Philosophy) and prof. Kenneth Ruud (Dept. of Chemistry) from the PRESTIGE project. The event was organized together with the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate (CAGE) and the UiT Equality and Diversity Committee (Likestilling- og mangfoldsutvalget).
Social activities
We also arrange informal gatherings (usually involving cake) for employees and students at International Day of Women and Girls in Science and Polar Pride, as well as invite our department to walk together with us in the yearly Arctic Pride parade in Tromsø.
2024.03.15 - International Potluck. All employees at the department were invited to bring a dish, traditional or otherwise, to a potluck dinner.
Other activities
2023.03.10 - Film screening + pizza: Picture a Scientist, for students at NT-fak. Sponsored by the project Jenteløft i utdanninger, UiT.
2022.03.04 - Film screening + pizza: Picture a Scientist. Sponsored by CAGE.
2021.06.11 - TED talks and discussion: Bias in the workplace. We watched and discussed 3 ways to be a better ally in the workplace | Melinda Epler and How to design gender bias out of your workplace | Sara Sanford.
2021.02.25 - Book discussion: A billion black Anthropocenes or none (Yusoff, 2019).
Outreach
We highlight JEDI-related events on social media, such as Instagram features presenting female researchers on the department's page @uitgeovitenskap in celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science and changing the logo on the department's Instagram and Facebook pages during Pride Month to increase visibility and show support for the LGBTQI+ community.
11.08.2024 - Presentation of the UiT Department of Geosciences Fieldwork Code of Conduct at the iEarth GeoLearning Forum.
Left: Instagram features posted by @uitgeovitenskap for International Day of Women and Girls in Science. See the highlight called #WomenInScience. Right: UiT Pride logo. Available for download here.