José Zepeda is a poet-scientist hybrid and originates from San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora in México. He talks about his experiences as a first generation immigrant making his way in academia. As a DREAMer, he recounts incidents of his life when he first recognized racism and racist attitudes. During the conversation, he shares poignant insights on how academic institutions need to change their power structures to better reflect the diversity of today’s society.

During the day, he is interested in how neural circuits within the brain can rewire themselves within the context of experience, both during regular development and pathologically. Whenever he gets a break from the lab, José is intent on crafting prose and poetry centered around the contemporary Xicano experience. José currently resides in Nashville, TN where he is pursuing a PhD in neuropharmacology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

More information about José - www.jczepeda.comMore information about racism in higher education:

• The proportion of Black faculty in higher educations (2018) - https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=61
• White Privilege in the workplace - The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards

Audio-transcription of the episode

Interviewed and edited by Dr. Shruti Muralidhar, Audio content editing by Abhishek Chari, Music from Lee Rosevere. Other projects by Shruti Muralidhar: BiasWatchIndia and IndSciComm.

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