Bystander-intervention programmes use humour and other tools to call out bullying and harassment in science.
15 August 2022 - When Sunita Nandihalli was a psychology graduate student at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, they and an undergraduate intern found
themselves in an lift with a man who seemed fascinated with the intern.
She was multiracial, and he repeatedly quizzed her about her hair.
Nandihalli, a queer person of colour, had experienced similar
obnoxious comments and stepped between the two of them, asking the
stranger about his day and where he was going. “I had to take the
intern’s safety into account,” they recall.
Nandihalli knew what to do because of ADVANCEGeo, a project that
trains researchers in how to intervene when they see bias and harassment
in the geosciences. Nandihalli had lent their expertise to the project
to adapt ‘bystander-intervention training’ programmes designed for
office workplaces and make them relevant to research and academic
settings...