Читать книгу Visual Communication - Janis Teruggi Page - Страница 57

A video series by the nonprofit iBiology showcases researchers who represent overlooked groups. “Background to Breakthrough” features Latino Estaban Burchard's journey from growing up in a poor, single parent home to his adult life as a health expert on asthma. The video's unique perspective frames Burchard not as a marginalized survivor, but rather as an creative achiever drawing from his valuable life experience to become a world‐renowned researcher and tenured professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

While many narratives about scientists from underrepresented backgrounds present an “underdog” story, iBiology believes they are stale, overused, and lack contextual depth.

This “surviving the odds” storyline does not fairly represent the scientists and science itself; rather, it is one dimensional. It diminishes the way they are seen and understood, harming the way others like them could envision themselves as scientists. And it obscures the value of diversity in the field and how it shapes breakthroughs.

iBiology's open‐access free videos in this series provide a broader picture using a variety of visual storytelling strategies focusing on how the race, identities, cultures, and backgrounds of underrepresented scientists fire up their ingenuity and approaches to problem solving. In Burchard's videos, he's not only seen as a researcher but as a mentor and activist. The essential message is that diversity enhances scientific research so that it helps people of all backgrounds.