Dear Faculty and Staff,
This announcement includes the results, in a slide show format, of Clarkson’s National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Oral History Research Project, based on in-depth interviews with current and former women STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) faculty at Clarkson.
When we got this ADVANCE grant, we thought we would be presenting our research results in multiple, interactive presentations with the Clarkson community. We had wanted to give people on our campuses an opportunity to discuss our findings as well as how our findings can be used to make Clarkson a more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming institution. However, circumstances have changed. We think this project is too important not to share. So we are sharing it prematurely and not in the format we wanted.
The early slides explain the NSF ADVANCE program (note that this federal government program focuses on gender equity for STEM faculty, not staff or students) as well as Clarkson’s ADVANCE Oral History Research Project.
We want to publicly thank the faculty whom we interviewed – who so generously shared their stories with us in the hopes that their stories would be used for the greater good. We believe that their stories and experiences have the power to create change and to improve an institution we all care about. In the current environment in the U.S., we feel that sharing these stories is more important than ever.
If you have questions or comments about the research, please contact Laura Ettinger at lettinge@clarkson.edu. We know it would have been so much better if this information would have been presented as part of a conversation, not as a slideshow in an announcement. We still hope that in the future, our findings can be part of a larger conversation at Clarkson.
If you have questions or comments about next steps in light of our research findings, please contact Jen Ball, STEM LEAF/ADVANCE PI, at jball@clarkson.edu, who will be the initial point of contact for action-related conversations and bringing this to the right people so that follow-through takes place.
ADVANCE Oral History Research Project team:
Sarah Treptow, J.D., STEM LEAF/ADVANCE Project Director
Jennifer Davinack, Ph.D., Former Associate Professor of Psychology
Laura Ettinger, Ph.D., Research Professor of History