Standing for Inclusivity: a Foundation for Our Teaching and Community

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

Our goal as Software and Data Carpentry is to build a community teaching digital research skills. We teach essential computing skills to thousands of researchers in academia and industry each year. As an international organization we rely on the volunteer efforts of hundreds of researchers and professionals from around the world. Our volunteers come from diverse backgrounds, countries of origin, and beliefs. These individuals generously donate their time with the goal of helping to speed the discovery of new knowledge and the creation of new technology.

Actions and policies that arbitrarily restrict the movement of peoples based on their beliefs, national origins, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other intrinsic class contradict one of Software and Data Carpentry core values: providing inclusive and supportive environments for all researchers. These harmful policies send a message to the highly-trained individuals who participate in and teach workshops that they and those like them are not welcome in the country where they collectively volunteer the majority of their time. They also put traveling volunteers at risk of being stranded far from their homes and families with little or no warning. These restrictions negatively impact our ability to teach others, collaborate and conduct scientific discourse and affect the advancement of research of all types.

We stand with those that have been harmed, both directly and indirectly, by any such actions or policies. If you are a researcher who is stranded and could use a local contact, contact us, and we will work to connect you with volunteers in our global network.