Building A Better Fieldwork Future

In 2018, with support from the Thoreau Foundation and CAMINO at UC Santa Cruz, we developed a workshop, Building a Better Fieldwork Future: Creating Inclusive Field Climates that prepares students, field researchers, instructors and staff to maintain their and each other’s well-being in the field by addressing difficult areas such as avoiding and navigating harassment in the field (for both men and women, as targets, witnesses who can intervene, and unwitting or witting perpetrators) and understanding appropriate boundaries around team member relationships. This workshop has been delivered to thousands of participants and garnered significant national attention and praise. According to preliminary survey results, participants report greater knowledge about and confidence in intervening, preventing, responding to, and reporting sexual harassment and assault in field settings after taking the workshop (Cronin et al., submitted). Armed with these tools, participants can play a role in ensuring that field settings are safer, more equitable, and more welcoming for the next generation of field scientists.