WHAT DO GEOSCIENCE DEPARTMENT WEBSITE PHOTOGRAPHS COMMUNICATE ABOUT DIVERSITY?

Geoscience department websites are a public representation of the department and discipline. Students may gather information about departments from department website photographs and make interpretations about how the goals and values of the department align with their own. Based on these interpretations, prospective students may make decisions to major or not to major in that discipline. We conducted a study to determine what department website photographs may communicate about geoscience culture and diversity. Photographs posted on the home pages of 60 geoscience department websites were collected and analyzed for the setting depicted (e.g., indoors, outdoors); presence or absence of people; and gender, race (white/non-white), and role (e.g., student, instructor, staff) of individuals.

There were 148 photographs on the home pages of the 60 geoscience department websites. The photographs depicted mostly outdoor settings and the majority of individuals were men and white. Over 80% of the photographs depicted outdoor settings. This may send the message that geoscientists spend most of their time outdoors. Viewers could also interpret this depiction to represent the most appealing aspect of geoscience work. The photographs depicted men making up the majority of people in all roles and depicted white individuals making up the majority of people in all roles. Women were more often represented in the photographs as students than as instructors or geoscientists; however, in both roles women still were a minority compared to the percentage of men in those roles. Non-whites made up a small percentage of the students and instructors/geoscientists (between 5 and 6%) depicted in the photographs.

Geoscience department websites can have an important role in communicating information about departments and discipline characteristics and culture. Thoughtful and deliberate design of the department websites is needed to ensure that the websites represent the broad range of geoscience work experiences and offer a welcoming image to a diversity of people.