Swanne Gordon

Assistant Professor of Biology

“Academia and research do not exist in a bubble, they exist as part of the real world.

With current issues related to the pandemic, many people ‘waking up’ to racism in America (and other parts of the world), and the disproportionate effect that the pandemic is having on certain populations; having this gap summer research year allows me the opportunity to breathe and plan. Specifically, I can plan better for my field station research next year, while being able to sit with my feelings, thoughts and proposed actions about a lot of really big topics. Topics that can be considered more important than running my delayed Tyson experiments. I have also been able to sustain my research organisms in my lab at the University, with very limited help due to restrictions rightly imposed during the pandemic.

I am the first Black tenure-track professor in the Department of Biology, but also, I have been told, in the physical and natural sciences at Washington University. My hire could be seen as progress, or it could be seen, more correctly, as a somber reminder of the historical under-representation of certain groups in STEM, in spite of us being more than qualified. In my opinion, my presence at WashU highlights that, because just now we are starting to have within our department the types of difficult conversations regarding race, its intersection with gender, and other social issues that could previously be avoided or downplayed.

I used to say I have two different types of Twitter feeds: my activism twitter and academia twitter; and I lived with one foot in either world. With the advent of this pandemic combined with the highlighting of racism and social justice across the globe, my two Twitter feeds have merged. This is something I really needed, because now I don't have to feel like I need to partition myself to be accepted in STEM. As minority scientists, that’s something we always learn to do instead of being accepted as our authentic selves. I feel more empowered now to use my voice on social media, and in person, to ensure that these worlds never separate again.”

Swanne’s research focuses on the evolution and maintenance of color polymorphisms in warning coloration, rapid evolution, and the interaction between sex linkage and adaptation. Learn more about her evolutionary ecology research here.