Fwd: OWLS seminar cancelled in solidarity with #shutdownSTEM #shutdownacademia #strike4blacklives

[Joao Marcos]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pawel Maria Sobocinski <pawel.so...@taltech.ee>
Date: Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 02:05
Subject: OWLS seminar cancelled in solidarity with #shutdownSTEM #shutdownacademia #strike4blacklives
To: Jamie Vicary <jamie...@gmail.com>, Alexandra Silva <alexand...@gmail.com>
Cc: Koko Muroya <koko....@gmail.com>, Nathanaël Fijalkow <nathanael...@labri.fr>, Charles Grellois <charles....@univ-amu.fr>, Krishna S <krishn...@gmail.com>

The OWLS seminar was due to take place this Wednesday June 10th. In the last two weeks, there have been many protests around the world following the murders of Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery. These are just a few examples of the violence and racism that Black people live with every day. These events have prompted a group of academics in STEM to call for a strike on June 10th to #shutdownSTEM and #shutdownacademia: the purpose of the strike is to hit pause, to give Black academics a break, and to give others an opportunity to reflect on their own complicity in anti-Black racism in academia and their local and global communities.

The OWLS organisers feel that this is an important cause and would like to encourage all OWLS participants to devote at least the hour they would spend in this week's seminar in an activity to prompt change in the (academic) world. See these links:
https://www.shutdownstem.com/action
https://www.particlesforjustice.org/strike-details
for ideas, and do not underestimate the power of small actions. Changes for the better in the world are a community effort but one person's actions can make a huge difference.

More informations on the action can be found in these links 
https://www.shutdownstem.com/about
https://www.particlesforjustice.org
and on social media with tags #shutdownSTEM and #shutdownacademia.

This week’s talk will be rescheduled to a later date.

Best wishes,
OWLS organisers