Publications

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/2

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2 Factors Challenging Faculty's Sense of Inclusion
(2024-08-08) Liu, Shuyin; Clark, Dessie; Smith-Doerr, Laurel; Misra, Joya
Pandemic-related caregiving burdens and health concerns have played a particularly large role, write Shuyin Liu, Dessie Clark, Laurel Smith-Doerr and Joya Misra.
COVID’s Lasting Impacts on Faculty Inclusion
(2024-08-01) Smith-Doerr, Laurel; Misra, Joya; Liu, Shuyin; Clark, Dessie
Think the pandemic is well behind us? Survey data shows feelings of inclusion have continued dropping as a result of it, write Laurel Smith-Doerr, Joya Misra, Shuyin Liu and Dessie Clark.
Deciding Together as Faculty: Narratives of Unanticipated Consequences in Gendered and Racialized Departmental Service, Promotion, and Voting
(2023-07-19) Smith-Doerr, Laurel; Mickey, Ethel; Kane-Lee, Ember Skye
Workplace inequalities scholarship often assumes making people aware of problems will lead to change, although gendered and racialized organizations theories show systemic problems beyond individual awareness. Still, not enough research analyzes the narratives of savvy organizational actors – like university faculty aware of inequalities – to understand the mechanisms operating against leveraging that knowledge for change. Data consist of 10 group interviews with 45 faculty across departments in one US public university, supplemented by content analysis of 56 departments’ written bylaws. Findings focus on three common shared decisions: committee service, hiring/promotion, and voting practices. We find awareness of inequality may actually reinforce the status quo when narratives about gendered and racialized processes feature decoupling from formal bylaws, and when narratives about outcomes relate to multiple layers of unanticipated consequences favoring whiteness and men. Specifically, inequality is reproduced when narratives about gendered and racialized unanticipated consequences: 1) highlight the imperviousness of change, as in the difficulty of allocating service work equitably, 2) lack reflexivity and shift responsibility to ‘other’ groups – ‘faculty’ or ‘administrators’ – as in unequal hiring and promotion decisions, and 3) focus on standard old boy stories which obscure other inequalities, as in faculty voting where non-tenure track rank inequality obscures race/gender inequalities. When unanticipated consequences narratives have dimensions of fatalism, finger pointing, and blindness to intersectionality, white men may continue to benefit. This study shows how formal policies and awareness of inequalities may still fail to produce change.
“I don’t believe that I have been wanted”: Processes of Overinclusion and Exclusion in Racialized and Gendered Organizations
(2024-07-29) Misra, Joya; Kane-Lee, Ember Skye; Mickey, Ethel; Smith-Doerr, Laurel
Many studies document that faculty of color, and particularly women of color, find the academy unwelcoming. Yet research that centers intersectional understanding of the mechanisms leading to these inequalities is underdeveloped. We identify three context-dependent mechanisms of racial and gender disadvantage among faculty: active exclusion, overinclusion, and passive exclusion. Taking an explicitly intersectional approach that builds on relational inequality theory, our study focuses on 32 faculty of color, including 18 women and 14 men, comparing their experiences to 30 same-rank white departmental colleagues. Comparing the experiences of faculty who share the same rank and department but differ by race and gender provides a deeper understanding of how race and gender inequalities intersect and are shaped by organizational processes. Active exclusion involves the devaluation of BIPOC faculty’s research, as well the barring of access to resources and positions. Overinclusion is characterized by the overreliance of the university on the labor of faculty of color, particularly women of color, without appropriate compensation. Finally, we conceptualize a more passive kind of exclusion, where BIPOC faculty are left out of collaborations, mentoring, and decision-making relative to white colleagues. Moving beyond rhetoric to disrupting racism in the academy requires addressing overinclusion, and both active and passive forms of exclusion.
Growing the roots of equity: The TREE model of institutional response to COVID-19
(2022-01-01) Clark, Dessie; Mickey, Ethel L.; Misra, Joya
Feminist scholars have long documented the complex, multiple ways in which academic institutions reproduce gender inequalities (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, & Institute of Medicine, 2007). In times of crisis, institutional commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion may be sidelined (Tulshyan, 2020). Academia must enact responses to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that retain and promote diverse women faculty who are already disadvantaged in their institution. This includes ensuring that structural shifts, such as policy changes, lead to deep, cultural change, embedding equity into the fabric of institutional norms and values. In this article, we outline a model for institutional change—the Thinking Ahead, Resource Provision, Evaluation, Equity (TREE) model—with the aim of informing diversity efforts in higher education more broadly during the pandemic.
Universities Should Look in the Mirror
(2021-01-01) Smith-Doerr, Laurel
Colleges have excellent faculty who are contributing new knowledge on equity and inclusion, but sadly that knowledge is rarely applied to the institutions themselves.
Addressing and Documenting Pandemic Impacts
(2020-01-01) Misra, Joya; Mickey, Ethel L.; Clark, Dessie
Crisis can easily sideline institutional commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, even as it exacerbates inequalities by gender, race, class, and other social locations. As members of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst ADVANCE-IT team, we were alert to the disparate impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on caregiving faculty, often women, and communities of color. We partnered with university leadership who, at the highest levels, recognized the importance of diversity, as well as the deeply engaged faculty union. Our immediate efforts have been to think creatively, adapt programming, create tools, and communicate clearly with our stakeholders to ensure that, over the long term, these disparate impacts do not lead to negative outcomes for STEM women regarding reappointment, tenure, and promotion, which would create a less diverse and inclusive university.
Creating Inclusive Department Climates in STEM Fields: Multiple Faculty Perspectives on the Same Departments
(2022-01-01) Misra, Joya; Mickey, Ethel L.; Kanelee, Ember Skye W.; Smith-Doerr, Laurel
Climate studies that measure equity and inclusion among faculty reveal widespread gender and race disparities in higher education. The chilly departmental climate that women and faculty of color experience is typically measured through university-wide surveys. Although inclusion plays out at the department level, research rarely focuses on departments. Drawing from 57 interviews with faculty in 14 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) departments, we compare experiences with inclusion among faculty in the same departments and rank who differ by race and gender. Women of color perceive their departments as least inclusive, followed by White women, White men, and men of color (largely foreign born). Yet the organizational context of departments strongly shapes faculty perspectives on climate. Analyzing multiple perspectives on the same departments reveals inclusive, improving, and marginalizing departments, as explained by perceptions of representation, collegiality, and democratic leadership. Faculty across race and gender largely agree when they are in inclusive or marginalizing departments. In improving departments, there is greater disagreement. By focusing on faculty who share the same department and rank, but differ by race and gender, we identify key approaches leaders can take to create more inclusive departments. Our focus on the department level helps develop new insights about how inclusion operates in university settings.
Collaborations and Gender Equity among Academic Scientists
(2017-01-01) Misra, Joya; Smith-Doerr, Laurel; Dasgupta, Nilanjana; Weaver, Gabriela; Normanly, Jennifer
Universities were established as hierarchical bureaucracies that reward individual attainment in evaluating success. Yet collaboration is crucial both to 21st century science and, we argue, to advancing equity for women academic scientists. We draw from research on gender equity and on collaboration in higher education, and report on data collected on one campus. Sixteen focus group meetings were held with 85 faculty members from STEM departments, separated by faculty rank and gender (i.e., assistant professor men, full professor women). Participants were asked structured questions about the role of collaboration in research, career development, and departmental decision-making. Inductive analyses of focus group data led to the development of a theoretical model in which resources, recognition, and relationships create conditions under which collaboration is likely to produce more gender equitable outcomes for STEM faculty. Ensuring women faculty have equal access to resources is central to safeguarding their success; relationships, including mutual mentoring, inclusion and collegiality, facilitate women’s careers in academia; and recognition of collaborative work bolsters women’s professional advancement. We further propose that gender equity will be stronger in STEM where resources, relationships, and recognition intersect—having multiplicative rather than additive effects.
How the Demographic Composition of Academic Science and Engineering Departments Influences Workplace Culture, Faculty Experience, and Retention Risk
(2018-01-01) Griffith, Eric E.; Dasgupta, Nilanjana
Although on average women are underrepresented in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments at universities, an underappreciated fact is that women’s representation varies widely across STEM disciplines. Past research is fairly silent on how local variations in gender composition impact faculty experiences. This study fills that gap. A survey of STEM departments at a large research university finds that women faculty in STEM are less professionally satisfied than male colleagues only if they are housed in departments where women are a small numeric minority. Gender differences in satisfaction are largest in departments with less than 25% women, smaller in departments with 25–35% women, and nonexistent in departments approaching 50% women. Gender differences in professional satisfaction in gender-unbalanced departments are mediated by women’s perception that their department’s climate is uncollegial, faculty governance is non-transparent, and gender relations are inequitable. Unfavorable department climates also predict retention risk for women in departments with few women, but not in departments closer to gender parity. Finally, faculty who find within-department mentors to be useful are more likely to have a favorable view of their department’s climate, which consequently predicts more professional satisfaction. Faculty gender and gender composition does not moderate these findings, suggesting that mentoring is equally effective for all faculty.
Doing Our Part: How Scientists Can Tackle the Unequal Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Disparities in Our Profession
(2021-01-01) Serio, Tricia; Misra, Joya
Science has risen to the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying the SARS CoV-2 virus within a month and developing an effective vaccine within a year. While this pace of discovery, innovation, and collaboration is inspiring, the pandemic has jeopardized our entire research enterprise in ways that were unimaginable for most scientists. By mid-March of 2020, nearly 80% of onsite activity was halted, resulting in the loss of nearly $10 billion in taxpayer-funded research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone. Reopening plans have struggled under limitations on use of space, travel, and access to reagents and equipment. While early analyses indicated surging manuscript and steady grant submissions relative to 2019, scientists, especially women, mothers, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and early-career researchers, reported decreases in research time of up to 24%, likely amplifying existing disparities in workload and opportunities.1–4 And the outcome of these disparities is already beginning to emerge: Women are underrepresented as authors on COVID-19 manuscripts, reporting research that necessarily began after the start of the pandemic. Together, these realities predict that the impact of SARS CoV-2 on research progress will extend well beyond the pandemic itself.
How Diversity Matters in the U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce: Integration and Inclusion in Teams and Departments
(2022-01-01) Smith-Doerr, Laurel
This document summarizes the proceedings of the Scientific Workforce Diversity Seminar Series (SWDSS) virtual seminar “How Does Diversity Impact Science?” The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Chief Officer for Science Workforce Diversity (COSWD) office hosted the seminar on May 17, 2022. Approximately 675 people from NIH and other organizations attended. Marie A. Bernard, M.D., COSWD, moderated a panel discussion on the evidence regarding the impact of diverse, inclusive teams on creativity, innovation, and productivity in science. Six invited speakers with workforce diversity expertise shared perspectives and presented their research, including how to measure the impact of diversity and potential areas for future study. Presentations by the panelists were followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by Dr. Bernard. This document details the main points from the invited speakers’ presentations and the ensuing discussion on what diversity brings to the scientific endeavor. The seminar recording and panelists’ presentation materials are on the COSWD website.
Gender and innovation through an intersectional lens: Reimagining academic entrepreneurship in the United States
(2022-01-01) Mickey, Ethel L.; Smith-Doerr, Laurel
How to study inequality in innovation? Often, the focus has been gender gaps in patenting. Yet much is missing from our understanding of gendered inequality in innovation with this focus. This review discusses how gender and innovation are intertwined in durable academic inequalities and have implications for who is served by innovation. It summarizes research on gender and race gaps in academic entrepreneurship (including patenting), reasons for those longstanding inequities, and concludes with discussing why innovation gaps matter, including the need to think critically about academic commercialization. And while literature exists on gender gaps in academic entrepreneurship and race gaps in patenting, intersectional analyses of innovation are missing. Black feminist theorists have taught us that gender and race are overlapping and inseparable systems of oppression. We cannot accurately understand inequality in innovation without intersectionality, so this is a serious gap in current research. Intersectional research on gender and innovation is needed across epistemic approaches and methods. From understanding discrimination in academic entrepreneurship to bringing together critical analyses of racial capitalism and academic capitalism, there is much work to do.
Fostering Inclusion for Black Faculty
(2022-01-01) Kanelee, Ember Skye W.; Misra, Joya; Mickey, Ethel L.
In the midst of a global pandemic, people have been rallying across the world to protest the continual state-sanctioned violence against and the structural inequalities faced by Black people in the United States. In response to this, many non-Black academics within higher education have circulated reading lists and written statements at a dizzying rate. While reading lists are a good starting point, we encourage allyship in the form of praxis. This article offers concrete ways for faculty to engage in praxis to dismantle systems of oppression within higher education. We detail the unique challenges Black faculty experience within higher education and suggest specific ways non-Black faculty can support Black faculty at every stage of their career. Using data from interviews conducted with diverse faculty members, we suggest several action-oriented steps to address how organizational practices, policies, and culture in higher education may be altered to create more equitable and inclusive environments for Black faculty.
A "Chillier" Climate for Multiply Marginalized STEM Faculty Impedes Research Collaboration
(2022-01-01) Griffith, Eric E.; Mickey, Ethel L.; Dasgupta, Nilanjana
Research collaboration is key to faculty career success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Yet little research has considered how faculty from multiply marginalized identity groups experience collaboration compared to colleagues from majority groups. The present study fills that gap by examining similarities and differences in collaboration experiences of faculty across multiple marginalized groups, and the role of department climate in those experiences. A survey of STEM faculty at a large public research university found that faculty from underrepresented groups – in terms of gender, race, and sexual orientation – had more negative experiences with department-level research collaborations. Moreover, faculty with multiply marginalized identities had worse collaboration experiences than others with a single marginalized identity or none. They also perceived their department climate to be less inclusive, equitable, and transparent; and felt their opinions were less valued in their department than colleagues from majority groups. Negative department climate, in turn, mediated and predicted less hospitable experiences with department-level research collaborations. These data suggest that multiply marginalized faculty, across different identity groups, share some common experiences of a “chilly” department climate relative to their peers from majority groups that impede opportunities for scientific collaboration, a key ingredient for faculty success. These findings have policy implications for retention of diverse faculty in university STEM departments.
Institutional Approaches to Mentoring Faculty Colleagues
(2021-01-01) Misra, Joya; Kanelee, Ember Skye W.; Mickey, Ethel L.
To build an inclusive climate for faculty, colleges should develop formal programs for mentoring rather than just leave it to individuals, write Joya Misra, Ember Skye Kanelee and Ethel L. Mickey.
The persistence of neoliberal logics in faculty evaluations amidst Covid-19: Recalibrating toward equity
(2022-01-01) Mickey, Ethel L.; Misra, Joya; Clark, Dessie
In this paper, we theorize the intersectional gendered impacts of COVID-19 on faculty labor, with a particular focus on how institutions of higher education in the United States evaluate faculty labor amidst the COVID-19 transition and beyond. The pandemic has disrupted faculty research, teaching, and service in differential ways, having larger impacts on women faculty, faculty of color, and caregiving faculty in ways that further reflect the intersections of these groups. Universities have had to reconsider how evaluation occurs, given the impact of these disruptions on faculty careers. Through a case study of university pandemic responses in the United States, we summarize key components of how colleges and universities shifted evaluations of faculty labor in response to COVID-19, including suspending teaching evaluations, implementing tenure delays, and allowing for impact statements in faculty reviews. While most institutional responses recenter neoliberal principles of the ideal academic worker that is both gendered and racialized, a few universities have taken more innovative approaches to better attend to equity concerns. We conclude by suggesting a recalibration of the faculty evaluation system – one that maintains systematic faculty reviews and allows for academic freedom, but requires universities to take a more contextualized approach to evaluation in ways that center equity and inclusion for women faculty and faculty of color for the long term.
Implementing Pandemic Equity Measures for Faculty
(2021-01-01) Misra, Joya; Mickey, Ethel L.; Clark, Dessie
Joya Misra, Ethel L. Mickey and Dessie Clark outline four concrete steps that institutional leaders can take to create equitable systems for supporting faculty members.
Keeping COVID-19 From Sidelining Equity
(2021-01-01) Misra, Joya; Clark, Dessie; Mickey, Ethel L.
Without engaged interventions, higher education will most likely become less diverse and inclusive, given the pressure the pandemic is placing on women and faculty of color.
Measures to Support Faculty During COVID-19
(2020-01-01) Mickey, Ethel L.; Clark, Dessie; Misra, Joya
The pandemic has amplified pre-existing inequities among faculty members, creating distinct challenges for differently situated ones, write Ethel L. Mickey, Dessie Clark and Joya Misra.

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