Below are some of the research projects currently underway in the lab. Generally, research projects in the lab focus on race, gender, or their intersection.
Diversity in Science
Despite growing interest in diversifying academic science, change in this area has been slow. Several interdisciplinary, collaborative projects in this area seek to understand the barriers to belonging, inclusion, and positive academic/career outcomes among individuals from groups that are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines, especially women and people of color. Two NSF-funded projects examine these issues. First, the CLIMBS-UP Project seeks to examine how inclusive climates at three levels (research group, department, and profession) affect career outcomes for early-career scholars in STEM fields, and whether climates that lack inclusion are especially problematic for individuals from underrepresented groups. Second, the WE2 Project will develop and validate a scale of epistemic exclusion, which has been theorized to be a barrier for underrepresented faculty and students. Epistemic exclusion is a form of scholarly devaluation and delegitimization rooted in disciplinary-biases related to what research is valued and social identity-based prejudice toward individuals from marginalized groups.
Faculty Inclusion and Excellence Study
Using data from 118 faculty of color, this project examines their experiences at a research-intensive university. It seeks to understand their unique needs, experiences, and sources of resilience in order to develop policies and practices to increase diversity in higher education. Some of the topics we are currently examining with these qualitative data include experiences of mentoring, tokenism, exclusion, and invisibility.
Sexual Harassment and Gender-based Mistreatment
Despite recent cultural awareness regarding the prevalence of sexual harassment at work, little is known about the multitude of configurations this form of gender-based mistreatment can take. Sexual harassment is an umbrella term describing a host of behaviors that demean individuals on the basis of their sex or gender, and can involve sexual advances and/or hostility toward someone due to beliefs about their gender group (e.g., women aren’t tough or smart enough for their profession). In a collection of interrelated studies, we examine sexual harassment and other types of gender-based mistreatment in different contexts (e.g., academic medicine) to determine its prevalence, associated outcomes, and reporting. We are especially interested in the role of power and status imbalances in shaping individuals’ experiences of sexual harassment and other types of gender-based mistreatment.
Race and Benevolent Sexism
Benevolent sexism refers to behaviors that appear positive (e.g., protecting women) but because they still restrict women’s behaviors and assume women’s lesser abilities (e.g., women can’t protect themselves), represent a form of sexism. This project examines whether perceptions of benevolent sexism vary by race and gender.
Cultural-Gender Role (Gendered-Racial) Archetypes and Wellness
Cultural-gender role archetypes refer to norms and expectations around appropriate behavior that vary depending on the intersection of one’s race and gender. For example, the Strong Black Woman ideology is a cultural-gender role archetype that is commonly held by Black women. We seek to understand how endorsement of various cultural-gender role archetypes is related to outcomes and behaviors including help-seeking and psychological well-being, particularly for Black women and Latinas.