Exploring Identity Formation of Minority Women in STEM through International research experiences

该奖项是NSF社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。这个博士后奖学金提供了一个新兴的生物科学家有机会探索参与国际研究的方式塑造了来自科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）领域代表性不足的女性的学术和个人发展。在过去十年中，国际研究合作的比率以及国际学生和科学家在美国的代表性稳步增长。科学现在比以往任何时候都更需要驾驭全球和地方人员、技术和地点网络的能力。与此同时，有色人种女性在STEM领域的代表性不足是有据可查的，并被认为是一项挑战，影响了我们解决当今时代复杂问题的能力，代表了人才和专业知识的流失。这项研究提供了对国际研究计划的见解，作为扩大STEM参与的创新战略。该项目的研究结果将有助于制定有效的战略，为美国学生进入新兴的全球化STEM劳动力市场做好准备。题为“通过国际研究经验探索少数群体妇女在科学、技术、工程和数学领域的身份形成”的项目探讨了跨国研究经验如何塑造科学、技术、工程和数学领域代表性不足的妇女的身份形成。更具体地说，本研究探讨了科学探究的不同文化背景可能会告知这些经验的方式，以及跨种族，性别，阶级交叉点的身份形成的复杂性，以及通过当代国际科学议程和网络的文化和物质实践成为科学家意味着什么。本研究采多点研究方式，结合参与观察、自由列举、半结构化与结构化访谈及实验研究。主要目标是（1）研究来自代表性不足背景的妇女如何谈判和竞争多种方式的认识，存在和成为（2）对本研究中的妇女适应全球和当地科学网络的反应和策略进行分类，以及（3）探索跨国STEM研究中社会组织和合作的新兴模式。这项研究旨在促进我们对种族和性别的文化结构如何在跨国STEM教育和研究的背景下重新配置，挑战和保存的理解。此外，这项研究的结果预计将有助于战略的发展，不仅增加性别，种族和民族的多样性在STEM学科，但也准备学生的研究和技术发展的快速全球化。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. This postdoctoral fellowship provides an emerging scholar-scientist with an opportunity to explore the ways participation in international research shape the academic and personal development of women from underrepresented backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Over the past decade, there has been a steady increase in the rate of international research collaboration and the representation of international students and scientists within the United States. Science, now more than ever, requires the ability to navigate global and local networks of people, technologies and places. Concurrently, the underrepresentation of women of color in STEM fields is well documented and has been framed as a challenge impacting our ability to solve the complex problems of our times and represents a loss of talent and expertise. This research provides insights into international research programs as an innovative strategy towards broadening participation in STEM. The findings of this project will contribute to the development of effective strategies to prepare U.S students to enter the emerging globalized STEM workforce. The project entitled, Exploring Identity Formation of Minority Women in STEM through International Research Experiences, explores the ways transnational research experiences shape the identity formation of women from underrepresented backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM) fields. More specifically, this research examines the ways in which varying cultural contexts of scientific inquiry may inform these experiences and the complexities of identity formation across the intersections of race, gender, class, and what it means to be a scientist through the cultural and material practices of contemporary international science agendas and networks. This project takes a multi-sited approach combining participant observation, free-listing, semi-structured and structured interviews and experimental research. The primary objectives are to (1) examine the ways women from underrepresented backgrounds negotiate and contest multiple ways of knowing, being and becoming (2) categorize the responses and strategies the women in this study adapt to navigate both global and local scientific networks, and (3) explore emerging models of social organization and collaboration in transnational STEM research. This research aims to advance our understandings of ways the cultural constructions of race and gender are reconfigured, challenged and preserved in the context of transnational STEM education and research. In addition, the findings of this study are expected to contribute to the development of strategies towards not only increasing gender, racial and ethnic diversity within the STEM disciplines, but also preparing students for the rapid globalization of research and technology development.