(L-R) chemistry student Kailene Black, Care Fellow Shaun Johnson, Emily Skop, Ph.D., and co-collaborator from AAG Risha RaQuelle, Ph.D.
Emily Skop is here to disrupt – in the most caring way possible.
The Geography and Environmental Studies professor has been undertaking a project dedicated to creating a more caring research environment and disrupting harmful practices in higher education. “The Convening of Care,” funded by the National Science Foundation, aims to transform the academic research sphere by mitigating barriers and promoting an ethos of care.
“Over the past couple of years, I’ve been reconciling my lived experience in higher education with some big social issues in terms of equity and inclusion and realizing that there’s a lot of harm that happens in higher ed,” said Skop. “I really needed to take time and slow down and think about being more authentic and caring in my workplace, and I have had an amazing transformation as a result of the work.”
“There are many hierarchies and inequities embedded in the research enterprise that excludes, silences and harms people, and the only way we’re going to shift that is to be more thoughtful in how we address our own selves in this work,” she continued. “There are a lot of important ways through which we can openly discuss the uncomfortableness that happens, the harm that happens, the power dynamics that are there. That’s care – bearing witness and being approximate to people’s varied experiences, and recognizing the harm that has been done.”
Skop wrote a ten-point pledge centered around care, which turned into a publication, “Ethos of Care,” co-authored by Martina Angela Caretta, Caroline Faria and Jessi L. Smith.
“Then I got a call out of the blue from Risha RaQuelle, Chief Strategy Officer at American Association of Geographers, about the article and some of the other mentorship activities I have done for that professional organization,” said Skop. “Risha and I started talking and immediately connected over our own challenging experiences in higher education, and realized we wanted to take action by using the pledge to help others think through this topic.”
Skop and RaQuelle then partnered to write the Convening of Care proposal, resulting in a $100,000 grant to establish their project. Skop put together “The Ethos of Care Credential for Transformational Change,” which was followed by “The Convening of Care” two-day workshop. The workshop took place last September and saw thirty-two early career scholars, academic leaders and research enterprise professionals gather in Washington D.C. at American Association of Geographers (AAG) headquarters, coordinated by UCCS and the AAG, with the help of National Organization of Research Development Coordinators.
“We put out a call on the AAG website for participants, and really emphasized it was an open call,” Skop said. “We were very explicit about wanting to bring in people who might not get invitations to this kind of work. Then we came together in Washington D.C. and had two days of awesome, empowering, transformative conversations, some of which were inspired by the work we’ve done here at Project Crest, and the ways in which we engage with each other and make work more joyful and caring. We had all these kinds of activities to make it fun, and we engaged in some really hard conversations about lived experiences that people have had and forging a way forward with a lot of possibilities.”
“The workshop was one of those career-defining moments, where you’re thinking ‘This work really does have power and I’m so excited that I’m sharing it, and that people are going to do with it what they will, and it’s going to lead to good things,'” she added.
In an impressive collaborative effort, the workshop attendees wrote a foundational paper, “Centering Care in the Academic Research Enterprise,” together to highlight the outcomes from the convening, share possible reform efforts and consider next steps in improving care in higher education.
“Short-term steps are very much immediately doable things, such as one-on-one developmental relationship building, letting people share their successes and recognizing their work, like a shoutout at the beginning of a faculty meeting, and laying out parameters in research collaborations,” said Skop. “Longer-term actions are around policy and changing institutional norms, and funding our colleagues at these emerging research institutions that have fewer resources so they can actually implement the work that we suggest. That’s what our future funding will hopefully cover – helping UCCS and AAG scale the work and helping our colleagues actually do the work through some seed grants and additional trainings and workshop opportunities.”
To further engage students in the project, Skop received a Green Action Fund award to hire Kailene Black, undergraduate in Chemistry, to help with developing the credential and participating in the conference. Together, they presented their work in at Mountain Lion Research Day this past December, where Skop was inducted into the UCCS Million Dollar Club for her impressive record of external funding.
Emily Skop (R), with undergrad research assistant Kailene Black and Provost Vidler (L)
Additionally, Skop and her cohorts are making the material and resources as accessible as possible. The credential will be published for open access and Skop continues to seek additional funding to further the difficult, but critical, work and conversations around care.
“This is not easy stuff to talk about,” Skop emphasized. “None of this work is easy. To know that we’re creating an environment where people are feeling like they can be open and share means a lot.”
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