Across the computer systems and architecture community, there has been A Call to Action to advance and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) values through systemic change. Towards this step, HPCA 2021, PPoPP 2021, CGO 2021, and CC 2021 held a joint session panel on “Valuing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Our Computing Community” to discuss paths across academia and industry. Recent blog posts have raised awareness and advocated for greater DEI efforts including: Gender Diversity in Computer Architecture, Statement on Diversity at MICRO-50, What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You, Inclusion and Conference Governance, and Chilly Climate in Computer Architecture?. Building an inclusive and safe research community requires collective and continued efforts from all members.
This summer, the Computer Architecture Student Association (CASA) is organizing the “Advancing and Promoting DEI in Computer Architecture Summer Reading Group”. The goals for the reading group are (1) provide a venue for computer architecture researchers and practitioners to study and discuss challenges and paths for broadening participation in computer architecture, (2) encourage a data-driven approach to understand DEI in computer architecture by reading and analyzing scholarly work, (3), create a diverse community where everyone has the opportunity to share their experiences and perspectives, and (4) when possible, invite guest speakers to shed light on their work related to DEI in STEM and computing.
Who can join? The summer reading group is open to all: students, post-docs, faculty, and industry practitioners. In addition to computer architecture, we welcome anyone in computer systems and computing more generally.
When is the reading group? The summer reading group will be held over six-to-seven sessions this summer 2021. To enable attendance across different schedules and time zones, the reading group sessions will be held at different times of the week throughout the summer. Sessions will be hosted roughly every two to three weeks. We have provided the tentative schedule below.
How is each session structured? Each session will be around 1 hour long. Central to this reading group is enabling anyone interested in joining the reading group to have the opportunity to do so. As such, each session will be split into two components, and no pre-meeting readings or literature sourcing is required. During the first 20 minutes of the session we will read the paper, book chapter, or article together (following copyright and fair use guidelines). In the latter 40 minutes of the session the members will discuss the presented material in groups of no more than 25. Breakout rooms will be used if the attendance is larger than 25.
We hope splitting the session into two distinct components will encourage individuals that may not otherwise be able to read the material beforehand to participate as well. Individuals that have already read the material on their own may join the second half directly. CASA members and volunteers will facilitate discussions for each session.
Tentative schedule:
| Date | Time (ET) | Reading |
| June 10 | 12pm – 1pm ET(Registration Link) | A Rising Tide of Hate and Violence against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19: Impact, Causes, Solutions (Foreword) by The Asian American Bar Association of New York Optional: StoryCorps: Gary Koivu on His Best Friend, Vincent Chin; A Silent Technical Advantage by Philip Guo; I Am Not Your Asian Stereotype by Canwen Xu |
| June 21 | 1pm – 2pm ET(Registration Link) | Stuck in the Shallow End by Jane Margolis |
| July 9 | 2pm – 3pm ET(Registration Link) | The Stereotypical Computer Scientist: Gendered Media Representations as a Barrier to Inclusion for Women by Cheryan et al. What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You by Kathryn S. McKinley |
| July 19 | TBA | TBA |
| August 2 | TBA | TBA |
| August 16 | TBA | TBA |
How to participate? There are many ways to participate in the summer reading group. First, everyone is more than welcome to join each announced session via the registration links above. Next, as you can see from the schedule above, readings for the last three sessions have not yet been finalized.
For the yet-to-be-announced sessions later in the summer, sign up for notifications and information via this Google Forms registration link. In addition, if you have a topic, book chapter, article, or other scholarly work you would like to suggest, please reach out to CASA (info@comparchsa.org). We hope to encourage discussions across a diverse range of experiences in computing. Finally, if you would like to volunteer to help guide discussions during the sessions please also reach out to CASA. We are looking forward to working with the community on organizing this summer reading group!
Hope to see you at the first summer reading group on June 10th!
About the Authors: The Computer Architecture Student Association (CASA) is an independent student-run organization with the express purpose of developing and fostering a positive and inviting student community within computer architecture.