Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in STEM Collections Display

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Aug. 1, 2023, 10 a.m.
Libraries is committed to diversity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through our collection.
illustrations of different races and genders in white lab coat

By Juan Denzer, Engineering and Computer Science Librarian

Syracuse University Libraries is committed to diversity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through our collection. For the month of August, Syracuse University Libraries is sharing books and electronic resources from our collection to celebrate the history and achievements of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in STEM. We hope our community will be inspired to make great achievements in science by reading about the diverse experiences of scientists from a variety of backgrounds.

Visit the 1st floor of Bird Library and check out the physical book display, curated by Juan Denzer, the Engineering and Computer Science Librarian. For more materials, including eBook recommendations, browse our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in STEM guide.

This is just a portion of the amazing titles of BIPOC in STEM. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions. If you have any suggestions, including additional titles for the Libraries’ collections, please fill out our Suggest a Resource.

Below is a small selection of materials to explore:

Featured Book: Reaching for the Moon : the autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson

“This rich volume is a national treasure.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Captivating, informative, and inspiring…Easy to follow and hard to put down.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

The inspiring autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who helped launch Apollo 11.

As a young girl, Katherine Johnson showed an exceptional aptitude for math. In school she quickly skipped ahead several grades and was soon studying complex equations with the support of a professor who saw great promise in her. But ability and opportunity did not always go hand in hand. As an African American and a girl growing up in an era of brutal racism and sexism, Katherine faced daily challenges. Still, she lived her life with her father’s words in mind: “You are no better than anyone else, and nobody else is better than you.”

In the early 1950s, Katherine was thrilled to join the organization that would become NASA. She worked on many of NASA’s biggest projects including the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first men on the moon.

Katherine Johnson’s story was made famous in the bestselling book and Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures. Now in Reaching for the Moon she tells her own story for the first time, in a lively autobiography that will inspire young readers everywhere.

Source: Publisher

Featured Book: The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

From a star theoretical physicist, a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos--and a call for a more liberatory practice of science.

Source: Publisher

Featured Book: An Oneida Indian in Foreign Waters

The Life of Chief Chapman Scanandoah, 1870-1953

Chief Chapman Scanandoah (1870–1953) was a decorated Navy veteran who served in the Spanish-American War, a skilled mechanic and a prize-winning agronomist who helped develop the Iroquois Village at the New York State Fair. He was also a historian, linguist, philosopher and early leader of the Oneida land claims movement. However, his fame among the Oneida people and among many of his Hodinöhsö:ni’ contemporaries today rests with his career as an inventor. In the era of Thomas Edison, Scanandoah challenged the stereotypes of the day that too often portrayed Native Americans as primitive, pre-technological and removed from modernity. In An Oneida Indian in Foreign Waters, Hauptman draws from Scanandoah’s own letters; his court, legislative, and congressional testimony; military records; and forty years of fieldwork experience to chronicle his remarkable life and understand the vital influence Scanandoah had on the fate of his people. Despite being away from his homeland for much of his life, Scanandoah fought tirelessly in federal courts to prevent the loss of the last remaining Oneida lands in New York State. Without Scanandoah and his extended Hanyoust family, Oneida existence in New York might have been permanently extinguished. Hauptman’s biography not only illuminates the extraordinary life of Scanandoah but also sheds new light on the struggle to maintain tribal identity in the face of an increasingly diminished homeland.

Source: Publisher

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