Scholars Award: Science in Transformation: Shifting Disciplinary Boundaries and Community-Engaged Scientists

首席研究员（PI）将解决由于科学界转向涉及跨越两个或多个不同领域的复杂问题而产生的问题；在这种情况下，问题是气候变化，它跨越了环境和社会领域。需要解决的关键问题涉及从事这一问题工作的科学家所面临的挑战，以及科学界规范中相关转变的特征。PI将通过关注几个精心挑选的处于这些变革前沿的科学家和组织的案例研究来解决这些问题。PI将采用多种方法，包括与科学家进行深入、半结构化的口述历史访谈，以及对他们的组织和研究项目的发展进行档案研究。这个项目的成果将是一个口述历史网站和一本案例研究专著，以记录这一科学变革时期。这项被提议的工作将通过记录科学家自己的故事，为科学和公民参与的研究做出贡献。在研究当前的科学问题（如气候变化）如何导致科学实践的转变时，该项目还将增加我们对一个时代的科学问题如何影响科学社会和制度规范的演变的理解，以及这些规范如何（反过来）影响科学问题的研究方式。从这项研究中获得的信息和成果将对其他科学家、科学社会学家和STS学者具有指导意义。更广泛的影响：该项目将为学术机构的政策提供信息，并指导培训新一代科学家的工作，这些科学家计划从事解决气候变化的科学和社会复杂性的工作。此外，拟议的工作将增强我们对如何促进科学家、决策者、社区成员和其他利益相关者之间的沟通的理解，这反过来可能提高研究和政策有效性。这项工作的地点是新奥尔良的一所历史悠久的黑人大学文理学院，本科生被包括在研究计划中，作为研究助理，这意味着这个项目将有助于培养未被充分代表的少数民族学生从事科学和社会科学研究，并鼓励未被充分代表的少数民族学生在这些领域进行研究生培训。设在工作地点的口述历史网站将为新奥尔良社区，特别是有色人种社区，提供关于气候变化科学和一般科学的更深层次的理解。

OverviewThe Principal Investigator (PI) will address questions that have arisen as a result of a shift by the scientific community towards engaging with complex problems that span two or more distinct realm; in this case, the issue is climate change, which spans environmental and social realms. Key questions to be addressed concern the challenges faced by scientists engaged in work on this problem, and the character of the associated shift in the norms within the scientific community. The PI will address these questions by focusing on several carefully chosen case studies of scientists and organizations at the leading edge of these transformations. The PI will use multiple methods in doing so, including in-depth, semi-structured oral history interviews with scientists, and archival research into the development of their organizations and research projects. The results of this project will be an oral history website and a monograph of case studies to document this transformative period in science.Intellectual MeritThe proposed work will contribute to the growing body of research into science and civic engagement by documenting stories of scientists themselves. In investigating how current scientific issues (such as climate change) are engendering a shift in science practice, this project will also increase our understanding of how the scientific problems of an age influence the evolution of scientific social and institutional norms, and how (in turn) those norms affect the way scientific problems are studied. The information and products gained from this research will be instructive to other scientists, to sociologists of science and to STS scholars.Broader Impacts :This project will serve to inform policy at academic institutions and to guide efforts to train a new generation of scientists who plan to engage in work that addresses the scientific and social complexities of climate change. Additionally, the proposed work will enhance our understanding of how to facilitate communication between scientists, policy makers, community members and other stakeholders, which could in turn improve research and policy effectiveness. The site of this work is a historically black college liberal arts college in New Orleans, and undergraduates are included in the research plan as research assistants, meaning that this project will contribute to the training of underrepresented minority students in science and social science research and encourage underrepresented minority students to pursue graduate training in those fields. The oral history website, housed at the work site, will serve to provide a deeper understanding to the New Orleans community, particularly communities of color, about the science of climate change and about science in general.