In June 2015, 160 astronomers, sociologists, policy makers and community leaders convened the first Inclusive Astronomy meeting at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, TN. The goal of this meeting was to discuss the issues affecting people of color; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, genderqueer/genderfluid, agender, intersex, queer, questioning, or asexual (LGBTIQA*) people; people with disabilities; women; and everyone who holds more than one of these underrepresented identities in the astronomical community. A key focus of this meeting was examination of issues of intersectionality: the well-established conceptualization that racism, sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, and ableism are often linked (e.g., that women of color are faced with the intersection of racism and sexism).
The following recommendations emerged as some of the first steps towards our shared goals, through the synthesis of prior work, input from community members, consultation with expert practitioners, and discussions and workshops during the conference itself. All guidelines and recommendations in this document should be interpreted in a way that benefits historically underrepresented groups.
Based on a presentation to Women in Astronomy 4 by Adam Burgasser, Kim Coble, Jessica Mink, and Dara Norman
PDF presentation (not published)