To enhance the visibility of successful underrepresented minorities in neuroscience and educate our campus community about issues that contribute to continued oppression of minority groups, the Seminar Outreach for Minority Advocacy (SOMA) seminar series consist of scientists from underrepresented backgrounds. Half of these speakers will be from cellular/systems/cognitive neuroscience backgrounds, while the other half will be from social neuroscience, speaking on their research related to the neuroscience of implicit bias, race relations, gender, etc. All invited speakers will begin their seminar with a description of their journeys in academia as a minority. We hope this opportunity to share personal stories will enhance the awareness of underrepresented stories in academia. Each seminar will be accompanied by lunch and dinner with students, allowing them the opportunity to interact with the speaker on a personal level. All talks will be open to the entire campus community; lunches will be reserved for neuroscience graduate students.
