Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

The Fishman Lab is an inclusive place to learn new skills and knowledge, explore the natural world, and discover the evolutionary processes that generate plant diversity. We welcome people from diverse backgrounds and identities. We do not tolerate discrimination based on race, nationality, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or socio-economic status. Further, we work to foster a sense of belonging for all in our lab group, department, institution, and larger scientific community.

We acknowledge that the practice and benefits of Western science have not been equally accessible to all. Further, we recognize that ideas from evolutionary biology and genetics have been (and still are) mis-used as justification for exclusion, inequities, and discrimination in many forms. We celebrate diversity, take responsibility as scientists for building awareness of the complex sources of societal inequities, and seek to rectify injustice through individual and group actions.

Indigenous Lands & Peoples

The University of Montana occupies the aboriginal lands of the Salish and Kalispel peoples, who remain a vital part of Western Montanan communities. Our field sites are also within the ancestral and unceded territories of displaced Indigenous peoples. The Greater Yellowstone region and its remarkable floral and fauna has long held great practical and spiritual importance to multiple indigenous groups (read more about their history and current re-Indigenization efforts in Stark et al. 2022). Our study sites in the Oregon Cascades are within the lands of Yoncalla, Molalla and Kalapuya peoples, as well as other groups within the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz. We acknowledge 1000s of generations of indigenous stewardship and knowledge of these places and their ecological communities, and seek to follow in a path of care and respect for the land and the plants.

We recognize the under-representation of Indigenous people in academic institutions and scientific research. We strive to correct this wrong and build a better research community by supporting Indigenous representation in our lab and in the broader scientific community.