The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded ADVANCE a $195,000 grant to research intersectionality on Murray State’s campus.
The National Science Foundation aims on promoting gender equity and broader equity in STEM.
Michael Bordieri, associate professor of psychology; Alexandra Hendley, associate professor of sociology and Diane Nititham, associate professor of sociology, will lead research efforts on campus as part of the social science team.
Maeve McCarthy, principal investigator for ADVANCE, said this grant is supplemental, which allows for additional funding for research.
“We found out about the call for supplementary proposals in June, when Michael Bordieri and I were at a conference,” McCarthy said. “We put the proposal together in about 10 days, which is really fast.”
Nititham said this research will allow her and the social science team to understand how underrepresented groups on campus are treated.
“An intersectional approach to examine marginalized identities provides a framework to see how structures, systems and discrimination (such as racism, sexism, ableism) combine to form different experiences of injustice and inequity,” Nititham said. “This allows us to better understand marginalized faculty experiences because race, gender and ability need to be examined together, not in isolation.”
Intersectionality broadly looks at how our identities interact and the idea that individuals shouldn’t look at diversity through one lens.
Bordieri said the overall goal from their research is to learn from current faculty to better understand their perspective and needs.
“One thing we know from an intersectional lens is we often miss the voices that are most important to us,” Bordieri said. “Faculty who might be the most marginalized, who might face the most barriers, sometimes get missed or minimized by our analyses…so the focus of this research is really to take that intersectional lens and amplify the voices of faculty whose experiences we may not have fully heard before.”
The group has started their research, with an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved study. Bordieri said getting an IRB approved study is important, as they are dealing with sensitive information and they will move forward in gathering research in multiple phases.
The group will send out surveys, conduct interviews and lead focus groups with other faculty members.
One survey has already been released to all faculty members on campus, through the Provost’s Office.
Nititham said each method has its strengths and weaknesses, so they complement each other well.
“We have designed a mixed-methods study which will help us better contextualize the experiences of our participants,” Nititham said. “We have semi-structured interviews, a survey and focus groups to have different points and types of data collection.”
Bordieri said he hopes people can achieve the team’s goal of making the institution a better place.
“We want this research by the end of next year to hopefully lead to some changes here at Murray State that can make our campus more welcoming, inclusive, better support our faculty, but we also want to be part of the bigger picture in our institutions across the U.S.,” Bordieri said. “As we all do this work on our campuses, we want to create a body of knowledge that we can share, learn from each other and make a bigger impact across higher education.”
