Who Describes the Spiders? With Katherine Montana and Cláudia Xavier
“I hope that individual taxonomists take a step back and really think about the choices they make when it comes to collaboration…I want taxonomists to consider equity in their work, and not just consider that but actively support actions that are making a difference in the way we do science.” Cláudia Xavier’s words here address the issue that is the focus of her new paper; who actually gets the opportunity to be a taxonomist?
In this episode, I talk to Katherine and Cláudia about their experiences writing this paper, but also being taxonomists in a field that wasn’t built with everyone in mind. They tell me the stories of two marginalized taxonomists who made outsized impacts on their field, and how they hope their research lays the foundation for a more equitable and just arachnology in the future.
Katherine Montana and Cláudia Xavier’s paper “If history is written by the victors, who describes the spiders? Species author trends reflect gender and geopolitical disparities in biodiversity science” is in volume 146, issue 1 of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blaf067
A transcript of this episode can be found here:
A spanish transcript of this episode can be found here:
Cláudia and Katherine en español
Follow Cláudia on Bluesky: @claudiaxavier.bsky.social
And learn from her on Instagram: @geaaoficial
Check out more from the Esposito lab:
https://www.arachnerds.info/
And follow them on Instagram: @arachnerds
Dr. Esposito is also the founder of the 500 Queer Scientists project:
https://500queerscientists.com/
World Spider Catalog: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/
Untold Stories from the Academy:
https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/library/untold-stories
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller: https://pushkinpress.com/book/why-fish-dont-exist/
Additional reading:
Developing scientific equity for biodiversity research: a thematic analysis of ecological change impacts on ranchers in Baja California Sur, Mexico: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170525100100
Science in Indigenous homelands: addressing power and justice in sustainability science from/with/in the Penobscot River
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00904-3
Promoting equity between the Global North and Global South in entomological research
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2025.101357
Anti-racist interventions to transform ecology, evolution and conservation biology departments
