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Straight-washing ecological legacies

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 3, page 1611 (2019)Cite this article

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To the Editor — Scientists are human, and scientists are diverse. But this diversity is nothing unless people can be themselves while practising science1. This should extend to acknowledging ‘hidden’ diversities of the scientists that changed our understanding of the world. This is important not only for historical accuracy but also because it provides role models for today’s diverse scientific communities.

The eighteenth-century scientist Alexander von Humboldt was one such scientist. He was a founder of geography and ecology; his expeditions across the world gave rise to biogeography, and he showed the “connectivity of nature”2. He was one of the first physical geographers, linking exploitation of nature and damage to ecosystems. This is the 250th anniversary of his birth, and Nature Ecology & Evolution rightly celebrated his achievements through an Editorial3 and a collection of papers that “look back over his life and compile a collection of articles inspired by his legacy”. However, in highlighting aspects of Humboldt’s personal life, but simultaneously excluding his well-documented infatuations with and attractions to men2, the Editorial perpetuates a culture of ‘straight-washing’. Whether this is deliberate or not, it divorces von Humboldt’s real self from his science, hiding the queerness of an important scientist. We write to highlight the importance of teams of diverse people, and the need to have visible role models to increase retention of under-represented groups in the sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ECRC, Department of Geography, UCL, London, UK

    Anson W. Mackay

  2. Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Linguistics and Film, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    David Adger

  3. Bird Group, Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Tring, UK

    Alexander L. Bond

  4. Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Sam Giles

  5. School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Erinma Ochu

Authors
  1. Anson W. Mackay
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  2. David Adger
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  3. Alexander L. Bond
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  4. Sam Giles
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  5. Erinma Ochu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anson W. Mackay.

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Competing interests

A.W.M., S.G. and E.O. are members of The Inclusion Group for Equity in Research in STEMM (https://www.tigerinstemm.org/). The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Mackay, A.W., Adger, D., Bond, A.L. et al. Straight-washing ecological legacies. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 1611 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1025-9

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