Petronet: a Petrology and High-Temperature Geochemistry Community Built Within AN Antiracist and Inclusive Framework

PetroNet is a petrology and high-temperature geochemistry Slack-hosted community built using an antiracist and inclusive framework. Our membership is open to petrologists and high-temperature geochemists of any career stage and identity, with protected spaces for sub-communities (e.g., graduate students, womxn). At this time there are over 80 members from institutions across the US and Europe, ranging from undergraduate students to full professors. The founding members of PetroNet were united in the summer of 2020 during the increased commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in academia after the murder of George Floyd. These members began an Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences (URGE) pod in spring 2021 and used the URGE curriculum to build an antiracist organizational framework to open up the group to the broader petrology and high-temperature geochemistry community. We launched a PetroNet Slack-based workspace in summer 2021.

The primary objective of PetroNet is to provide an inclusive and anti-racist community filling in the gaps of our professional and social communities while building professional networks and providing social interaction. We accomplish this through Slack-based communications, Zoom meetings on specific themes (e.g., Indigenous ways of knowing, field safety guides, course development, skills workshops), and in-person socialization at society meetings (e.g., a PetroNet dinner at AGU in 2021 had >20 attendees). We use this community to share DEI resources, seek advice on navigating specific DEI challenges in one's home institution, gain perspectives on various career stages, and discuss petrology and geochemistry topics. As part of our participation in the URGE pod curriculum, we developed a living code of conduct document, a mission statement, and a management plan, all posted on our public-facing website. In addition, we developed a brief onboarding survey to collect demographic data.

Our long-term goal for PetroNet is that it serves as an intermediate-scale organization between the scale of a department and professional society. We aim to reduce personal and intellectual isolation, foster community, as well as provide DEI and petrology/geochemistry resources in a safe, inclusive, and antiracist environment.