Zoom Link: https://asu.zoom.us/j/83321927985

Speaker: Cynthia Bauerle, PhD, James Madison University

Decades of effort designed to increase diverse participation and build a representative STEM enterprise through expanded educational access have not resulted in gains sufficient to keep pace with rapidly changing US demographics. Scholars in gender studies and critical race theory are helping to refocus national STEM discourse on how scientific culture and practices have functioned to exclude participation on the basis of gender, race and ethnicity. Yet in undergraduate science classrooms and laboratories, students of color, women and other minoritized students in STEM continue to report marginalizing treatment and disproportionately switch out of their intended field of study. To make progress toward equity, we must engage in the critical work of interrogating standards and practices informing the educational context within which we teach and students learn science. An equity lens can identify exclusionary practices to be eliminated and center inclusive excellence that supports the success and persistence of all students.

Cynthia Bauerle, PhD, James Madison University: As a white, gender queer science educator and administrator, I am committed to identifying and dismantling racist, sexist, and homophobic practices in STEM education that continue to marginalize people and prevent us from developing the scientific talent we have in the US, and which we need to address our most critical global challenges. My experience as a biology educator, my involvement with the national STEM education reform, and ongoing work at the boundaries of discipline and culture have taught me that broad scale transformation depends on local efforts to cultivate sustainable cultures of inclusive excellence.