Situated engagement is a call to action

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

It's a new and interesting venue. The more venues that we start taking seriously, the more venues we get to use. The, as I mentioned before, audience access is superb. Again, you are hitting at thousands of people that probably wouldn't have sought you out any other way. That's really big. You're doing it in a happy environment. There's lots of research to show that when people are happy, they respond to messages differently. Absolutely, the thing itself is a great venue for sci-com for talking about science issues, and I think that it should absolutely be pursued further.

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

On the practical end, I will say that the sheer exposure is phenomenal. You are hitting thousands of people in a really short period of time that do not necessarily give a damn about science, but that's actually important. You have gone to an audience that is huge and is looking at you and may not just stumble upon you any other way, so I think that the chance to do that is not to be ... Or that cannot be overstated.

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Situated engagement joins community.

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Yeah, I think that one of the things, from studying science communication, that I have seen over and over again is this idea that it doesn't matter, that the concept of science and being a scientist is easy for a lot of people to remove from community and cultural contexts, which I think is wrong, but I think that a lot of people do it. And so it is always gratifying to see when people are willing to do those outreach things and say, "No, it's not all academic ivory towers. Science is made up of communities too, and it matters." Not just communities, but minorities. And I think a lot of minorities feel it quite intensely when they're not represented, and they don't feel like they're seen.

Parmvir Bahia

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

I think I've just come up with another implicit message from the activity, which is that science is for everyone. There was no one from the crowd that was excluded from participating and engaging. Yeah, I would agree with that. I was just thinking. Yeah, this is Michelle again. That's what I was thinking earlier, that a message that I personally really love that you belong. You belong however you identify, and you belong in science, however you identify.

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Situated engagement connects cultures.

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

I think that you've also got the benefit of being surprising. Yes, I think that that kind of audience is going to be at least a bit more open to community stuff because they are at a massive community event. But, also, they can easily go to an event like that for their interest in the LGBTQ community and nothing else. Right. So when you present yourself in front of these people, there's something surprising. You're something a little different that is not automatically assumed to be a part of an event like that, so the novelty, I think, can be a real positive.

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Situated engagement is personal.

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

I feel like I've made friends, but I will add a more personal thing. I will self disclose a little bit. I identify as gay, and I also identify as a scientist. This was my first pride event ever, and so it really was quite something for me. I started in the life sciences, switched over into the social sciences, but I did all of that without any particular ... How to put it? Mentors that were like me. I have never really seen very much of: We are scientists, and we support the LGBTQ community in such a direct way. And so that really meant something for me to see now and especially as an adult and someone who is working their way up the academic ladder. As I saw all of it, it really struck me with, okay, this is important. This is a place where we should be as scientists. This is a community that we should talk to as scientists. And so it meant a lot to see you all doing that.

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Situated engagement reframes science.

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

So, explicitly, what was there was St. Pete Science Festival, their website, and the date of the next festival, but there's a lot of implicit things happening. Again, support for the community is one of those big implicits because they're there. They're integrating into the theme of the event, and so that will automatically suggest effort, as does the presence of a decorated float, anyway. It can then be inferred that you spent money and time to be a part of that event, and that suggests that you care about what you're doing. I would also say that your theme did contribute to this implicit idea that science is fun: bouncy music, flashing lights, fog cannons, and things like that are fun. And, therefore, so are you. So science got to be told as fun. The St. Pete Science Festival, which is connected to that, therefore gets an implication of being fun. Yeah, so for me, those were the implicits.

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

it generated a lot of happiness, and that was good to see. Even in science-positive environments with science-positive audiences, the concept of science does not always spark joy, but it did here, and I think that that was really important.

Parmvir Bahia

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

it's a lovely, really family-friendly, really open, really welcoming environment. None of it felt oppressive. None of it felt ... Especially for a science festival that is geared towards children, none of it was overtly sexual or ... Yeah, it was a fun time for all, and I think Vaughan and I both agreed that certainly the way the float looked was very in keeping with the theme of pride and the parade itself. The interaction with the volunteers and the music was certainly ... Yeah, it was all well ... It fit well with the rest of the theme of pride. I would agree with all of that. It was a happy, convivial event. It was a happy, convivial float. People were on both sides. Audience and actors were thrilled to be there or at least quite openly seemed to be. So, yeah, it was very much in keeping within itself. Also, as Parmvir said, within the event.

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Situated engagement transforms participants.

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

The exuberance and excitement of the volunteers was also something really good to see. I talked with several members of the volunteer crew, and all of them were enthused to the point of vibrating about what they were doing. And that does not have to be the case; you can be conscripted into an event you don't care about, but they weren't. And so I think that that sense of, again, conviviality within the float itself, the clearly positive interactions the walkers were having with audience members, people exclaiming with delight when they put on glasses, it brought much more happiness than I would ever have anticipated for a float.

Theresa Burress

Team Leader

St. Pete Pride Parade

Theresa Burress

Team Leader

St. Pete Pride Parade

I will say that we had a couple of volunteers, my son included, teenager, and one of his friends, who came and wanted to contribute to building the float but we're uncomfortable. They're teenagers, so they were uncomfortable with the idea that anybody was looking at them. And so they had the opportunity to come and contribute, and saw PVC pipes, and cut chicken wire, and use a drill, and get a little bit of mentoring from our young science professionals who were leading the float building. And then they finished up their task and then went on their way. So there was even people who are very introverted and don't like the idea of being on stage, that performativeness that comes with walking through a large crowd or whatever, they contributed as well.

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader

St Pete Pride Parade

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader

St Pete Pride Parade

So we have our chair of our volunteer committee, co-chair of the volunteer committee organized the volunteers for this particular event. And her daughter, who is on the spectrum, accompanied her and assisted her in checking in volunteers, et cetera. My understanding is that the parents are very protective of their kids and rightfully so, but this is probably the closest that Mary Margaret could get to ... She's a high school student, by the way. Could get to what a club scene might look and feel like. And Mary Margaret [inaudible] she was on the float, and she danced as if no one was watching for the entire parade. And when I mean dance, she danced. Again, creating space for her to be whatever she wanted to be that night, which I thought was ... We're proud of that as well.

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Situated engagement is better with special support.

Parmvir Bahia

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer

St. Pete Pride Parade

I agree that having seen some of the participants during the parade, where we leave some big organizations unnamed in this, for the fact that they just showed up with a Jeep and a banner on the float, I personally was turned off by that. And when you know it's a big and well-funded organization, and you think, "Really, guys, that's the best you could do?" So honestly, it demonstrates how much effort you put into doing this. So there's a little bit of go big or go home. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, or at least put in effort to show that you care.

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader

St Pete Pride Parade

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader

St Pete Pride Parade

It does take a bit of effort to create a sophisticated [inaudible], but I think it's important that we do have a float much like the other major floats that are there and not just a flatbed trailer from U-Haul. Nothing against that, but it decrees a different presence, I should say.

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