As part of XSEDE's continued commitment to inclusion, a recently formed group recommends inclusive language in XSEDE-related materials

By Boswell Hutson, National Center for Supercomputing Applications

Over the past couple of years, we've watched as the world has changed around us. For many in XSEDE, it was clear that, as an organization, it could do more to act on the diversity and inclusion goals, pillars of XSEDE's organizational foundation. As a response, a diverse group of XSEDE staff members created, with the support of project leadership, the XSEDE Terminology Task Force which seeks to reaffirm the organization's commitment to building and sustaining a more diverse, inclusive and equitable research community, and also to serve as a community resource for researchers and beyond.

XSEDE has always kept inclusion at the forefront of its mission and will continue to do so, but in order to turn this from an idea into action, it became clear that a group was needed for XSEDE to actively establish and maintain inclusive standards, most notably via itsown professional communications.

As a result, staff members from across the XSEDE project formed the XSEDE Terminology Task Force, a project-wide collaboration meant to address non-inclusive language and phrasing in XSEDE materials and recommend a suitable alternative replacement, for example, making sure to use non-gendered pronouns in project materials. Additionally, this list can be used as a community resource and leveraged by other advanced computing and research organizations.

This task force commits to reviewing the terminology used throughout XSEDE materials, both digital and physical, and assures that the language used by XSEDE meets its inclusivity standards and aligns with its Code of Conduct. This collaboration will require diligent cataloging and discussion of terminology use-cases, ongoing internal meetings, external discussions at conferences like PEARC and SC, and includes members from nearly every area of XSEDE.

"The social justice activity in the spring of 2020 brought to the fore that an organization like XSEDE, which touches a broad cross-section of our community, was in a position to do something more – to act as an agent of change as opposed to just following those leading change." – XSEDE Principal Investigator and Project Director John Towns.

In the event that XSEDE has included inappropriate materials, verbal or written, please let the Terminology Task Force know at terminology@xsede.org. While XSEDE has no control over external third-party documentation, it's taking steps to effect change by contacting the relevant organizations; it's hoped this will be addressed by all third parties soon.

Through this thorough examination and continued vigilance, XSEDE wishes to foster a more inclusive and aware XSEDE and the broader high-performance computing research community.

"Our inclusivity is our strength," said XSEDE PI John Towns. "The Terminology Task Force has made, and will continue to make, concerted efforts to foster diversity throughout our collaboration and respective communities."

At A Glance

• Social Justice activities since 2020 brought the need to focus on inclusive language to the attention of XSEDE communities.

• The Terminology Task Force was created to ensure XSEDE materials were reviewed and updated with alternative words and phrasing.

• XSEDE hopes the work of this group will lead high-performance computing to be more conscientious about language choices.