I read Gerald P. López’s Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano’s Vision of Progressive Law Practice last week, over the winter holiday and fresh out of my first semester of 1L. I was lucky to score a copy from the public library; I was shocked to find the book listed for $500…

What does it take for people of colour to see themselves as they are? — Last week, I looked at my calendar and had a moment where my heart sunk with a wave of overwhelm. I was working a full-time job, juggling a handful of freelance and volunteer graphic design projects, organizing and facilitating community events, and attempting to pitch essays and submit short stories…

Reflecting on learnings from the 2018 Creative Commons Global Summit in Toronto, Canada — I was happy to hear Chris Bourg remind us that “libraries have never been merely neutral repositories of knowledge” in her keynote at this weekend’s Creative Commons Global Summit in Toronto. …

Conferences need to take codes of conduct seriously—not gloss over anti-harassment and diversity policies with a “Be Nice” rule of thumb. — Last week, I participated in the FORCE11 Scholarly Communications Institute (FSCI), a week-long training on the evolving landscape of #scholcomm. The institute functioned much like a conference, with daily plenaries and panel discussions. Like most conferences, there was an announcement around FSCI’s code of conduct at the start of the…

The Need for Meaningful Diversity and Human-Centred Design When Imagining a “Scholarly Commons” — A couple weekends ago, FORCE11 (The Future For Research Communications and E-Scholarship) brought together fifty people from various continents in Madrid to imagine what a ‘scholarly commons’ could look like. The goal of the workshop was to define the principles for a research communication system made possible by today’s technologies…

I didn’t know death until I was 21. Some might argue that I still don’t know it, the full weight of death-ness — after all, I do not know the death of a sibling, parent, or lover — but before 21, I had barely known death at all. Before 21…

the egg tart chronicles I. It’s a familiar setting. I am eight, maybe nine. I am seated at a large, circular table. The walls around me are lined with red velvety fabric. The restaurant is loud; dozens of conversations amalgamate into one indistinguishable buzz. The adults at my table practically…

In which I contemplate whether family affection can really exist with a language barrier. — I dialled my grandparents’ number this morning with apprehension and a familiar nervousness. It was Chinese New Year, and I needed to call to send my good wishes. After a couple rings, my grandma picked up, answering with her characteristic, deadpan Wai? I greeted her with a high pitched, Hello…

Part 2 from a 2-part series reflecting on lessons learned from OpenCon 2014. Read Part 1 here. In Part 1, I wrote about my disillusionment with science from a systemic perspective. I wrote about how I believed that science was broken. It was broken because it had evolved into an…