As part of their Borysiewicz Interdisciplinary Fellowship, SJ Beard completed an independent project surveying researchers in Existential Risk Studies to understand their views on diversity and inclusion. SJ partnered with Suzy Levy, a consultant specialising in this area, and carried out a dozen interviews, including some at CSER. They found that there are many ways in which people can feel they are not a part of the field, or on the margins. There is a risk that both the perception and reality may be limiting the growth and creativity of work on mitigating existential risk. This follows on from a working paper and book chapter SJ wrote with Lalitha Sundaram and Matthijs Maas on seven questions for the field.
“We know from multiple studies that people work more effectively when they seek out contrasting views and can draw from an array of different perspectives,” CSER Director Matthew Connelley noted. ”This project shows we have work to do if we want to keep building existential and catastrophic risk studies as a rigorous field of research. Making our community more inclusive is one of CSER’s top priorities, and is a key goal of our 2024 Conference.”
