Developing Inclusive Identity Practices in Academic Publishing and Beyond

Online Webinar

Friday, April 21, 2023

2:00-3:00 PM EST

Presented via Zoom

Registration Link

In this talk I reflect on my experiences advocating for trans-inclusive name change policies in academic publishing over the past three years. I recount my experiences at the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), writing and implementing the first official name change policy to be adopted at a major publisher, as well as my ongoing work with the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) to help create guidance for how to best address the challenges that these kinds of policies pose. I describe the harms caused by allowing the names of transgender people to be left uncorrected in public-facing databases, and outline guiding principles for more inclusive approaches.  I argue that inclusive identity practices demand policies, software infrastructures and platforms with persistent digital identifiers that are distinct from public-facing, user-editable names. I close by considering how the case study of the work we’ve done in the publishing world can serve as a model for others seeking to adopt more inclusive naming practices and consider some of the challenges and pragmatics of implementing these policies.

Discussion

The presentation will be followed by a 15-minute Q+A session and 30-minute facilitated discussion on how library workers can advocate for inclusive identity practices and use this work as a model for collective action in other areas of academia. 

Presenter

Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum (“Tess”) is a game designer, artist, maker, and associate professor in the Department of Informatics at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California-Irvine where she is a founding member of the Transformative Play Lab. Recently, Tess founded a cross-disciplinary Trans Inclusive Name Change Policy Working Group. Many from this group have joined a working group at the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) where they are currently working to issue guidance to the almost 13,000 member publishers and journals who look to this body for rulings on issues of integrity, fairness, and ethics in publishing practices.

Additional Information

Presented by the Science & Technology Section and co-sponsored by the University Libraries Section.