Science Communication

Archived GoFundMe Update from IEEPI study.

Greetings! I’d like to start with some project updates. I have started interviewing NASA analog astronauts, and I am about to speak with European Space Agency analogue astronauts later this week. Pre-interviews with our own Space Health analogue astronauts will begin next week as well, as final preparations are underway and the early pre-study chapter begins.

As for publications, I recently posted that I gave a talk about Ethnography in Space Research to the Oxford University Exploration Club and submitted a blog post to the Oxford Department of International Development’s Blog. I’ve also submitted a magazine article to the Scientific Exploration Society’s Exploration Revealed magazine, where I’ve, lastly, been taken on as a magazine editor.

All of that leads me to today’s topic because now seems like a good time to discuss science communication.

Science has historically been very exclusive. The knowledge produced by studies has usually been kept in the hands of the privileged, the wealthy, and those in control (“The Ivory Tower”). Even today, academic journals are kept behind paywalls and memberships. We learn the basics in middle and high school, but that’s about it. Every once in a while, we’ll see a news story about one study or another, but it’s easy to get lost without any context. And let’s be real–most research papers are pretty dense and hard to get through.

These are all reasons why science communication is so important. The public should have access to knowledge and discoveries. YouTube has been helpful with this, allowing an entire genre of video essays by highly qualified specialists to get to an audience while being engaging and entertaining (see Storied, Ask a Mortician, Dig it With Raven, or, of course, Contrapoints). Some museums have even joined this trend, and I'm particularly fond of The Field Museum and their series The Brain Scoop, whose host, Emily Graslie, made a fine point (paraphrasing): ‘I might reach 1,000 people in one day at the museum. On youtube, I can reach hundreds of thousands in an instant.’ Finally, who could forget our beloved father, Bill Nye the Science Guy?

In the field of anthropology though, science communication has been pretty stagnant. Honestly, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Anthropologists spend years getting to know people, places, cultures, and practices intimately. Not only is that insight fascinating, but it’s also vitally important for the general public. Understanding each other leads to greater cooperation, appreciation, and understanding of cultural differences. Empathy (putting yourself in someone else’s shoes) and sympathy (connecting over a shared experience) are at the heart of anthropology, and I’d bet we all feel a need for that right now.

On a more technical level, science literacy is universally valuable–how do you know how seriously to take a study that you are reading about? Teaching methodology (how to do science) is great for innovation, which is something that our modern age demands in abundance. Sharing anecdotes or life stories about science expeditions and scientists can inspire young people to strive to be an astronaut, an archaeologist, and so on. The job of science communication is taking ‘science’ from a scary word that makes our heads swim to a grounded, tangible set of ideas.

From the beginning of my academic career, public engagement and science communication have been a priority for me. I work with refugees, forced migrants, and the homeless–all groups of people who can be easily misunderstood or generalized. A nuanced, informed conversation about migration is the discussion of our age. With opinions, political posturing, media, and (let’s face it) discrimination in abundance, actual science needs to be part of the conversation in an easy, accessible way. Now that I’m working with analogue astronauts, the opportunities for connecting with a wide variety of audiences and weaving together data from different forms of migration has never been so i) important, and ii) fascinating.

So…

In the coming weeks, I will be building a website to act as a living journal of my research. It will be accessible, condensed, and built for public engagement. This will chronicle the entirety of my work with analogue astronauts, as well as my history with migration and my own current journeys. By combining forced migration, exploratory research, and my own personal adventures and expeditions, I hope to give a mixture of perspectives that can make the science more tangible.

This may develop into a YouTube channel, because I recognize how much easier it is to watch something than read it–that depends on my technical skills and how much time I have to dedicate to editing.

To go along with this, I will be opening a Patreon page. I’ll have an entirely separate post on funding research, crowdfunding, “selling out”, etc. but for now I’ll simply say that it will offer you a chance to continually support my work and allow me to focus more on making a difference with studies and communication. More to follow.

For the time being, I will still be updating this page. If you are getting this in your email, you don’t need to change anything just yet. I hope that the changes that I am able to bring to you in the future will help to share what I am learning with you in a more effective and entertaining manner. After all, we’re talking about simulated journeys into space, here! It should be extremely fun and informative!