Background for the Workshop
For at least a decade, U.S. funding agencies and university campuses have promoted the expansion of interdisciplinary research. At the same time, federal and local programs have sought to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in science, mathematics, and engineering. While research has focused on each of these trends independently, very few studies have considered how intellectual preferences for and professional consequences of interdisciplinary research might be influenced by one’s gender, race, and/or ethnicity.
With this in mind, Barnard College, Columbia University, and the Social Science Research Council have conducted an interdisciplinary workshop on “Women, Minorities, and Interdisciplinarity: Transforming the Research Enterprise”. The workshop has brought together the perspectives of historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science with those of engaged scientists, educators, and policy makers to:
- Consider the expectation that women and minorities may be more drawn to interdisciplinary research
- Explore the learning styles, problem choices, and career behaviors that might anticipate and/or explicate group-based differences in interdisciplinary research
- Examine real and potential options for, and implications of, interdisciplinary career paths in both the short- and the long-term
The workshop addressed these issues from both the institutional and individual perspectives, and considered the drivers and consequences for these distinct groups.
Participants were charged with: (a) identifying assumptions and arguments behind initiatives pertaining to the expansion of women and minorities in science, mathematics, and engineering, paying particular attention to efforts specifically targeting interdisciplinarity; (b) discerning what data exist and what are needed to test the hypothesis that participation in interdisciplinary research may be governed to some extent by gender and/or race/ethnicity-based attributes; (c) strategizing potential studies examining the relative effects of individual attributes, group characteristics, socio-structural conditions and their interactions on preferences for and performances in interdisciplinary research (as opposed to disciplinary research); (d) outlining possible positive and negative implications of interdisciplinary career paths for the individuals that pursue them, the organizations that offer them, and the scientific enterprise in general; and, (e) proposing potential policy and programmatic strategies to mitigate negative implications.
The results of this workshop will be published as an SSRC Report, on the Columbia ADVANCE and Barnard websites, and disseminated openly and widely for use in myriad ways and with multiple benefits (including via a Public SSRC Web-Based Forum). First, the workshop and the report will lay the groundwork for a research agenda to examine reforms targeting the development of interdisciplinarity as well as those seeking to attract women and minorities. The intrinsic goal of these workshop outputs will be developing a better understanding and improving the effects of these key efforts, particularly where they intersect. Second, by calling for empirical evidence pertaining to gender and race/ethnicity-based differences in interdisciplinary research preferences, performances, and consequences, this workshop will develop capabilities that help guide discussions and actions around these twinned topics far beyond that of the immediate participants. Third, in addition to offering programmatic and policy guidance on these issues, the workshop and white paper will be in a position to make an immediate substantive contribution to the current research and literatures on science studies and women’s studies, as well as inspire new research directions for others in these fields.
This workshop comes at a critical time. Amid fears of a shrinking U.S. scientific workforce and a dulling competitive edge, the expansion of interdisciplinary programs and the diversification of the workforce have become part and parcel of the social restructuring of the contemporary scientific and engineering enterprise. Gender- and race/ethnicity-based gaps in science and engineering are complex issues of justifiable concern for reasons of social equity and for assurance of a diverse and talented workforce in science. Thus, making better use of the talent of female and underrepresented minority scientists and engineers has been a prominent policy objective for at least a quarter of a century. Preliminary data do suggest that interdisciplinarity, in addition to standing on its own as a policy goal, could serve as a strong attracter of women and minorities into scientific research and scientific research careers (Rhoten & Pfirman, in press). However, if funding agencies, university leaders, and individual scholars plan to increase their investment in interdisciplinarity, such initiatives should be accompanied by policies and programs that mitigate the negative consequences of scientists and engineers who choose this path inside and outside the academy where we know interdisciplinarity, particularly problem-based interdisciplinarity, is often still considered second-class to theoretical or experimental disciplinary work. Otherwise, interdisciplinarity may be a lever of attraction but also a path toward frustration and attrition.