Third HBCU-HDI Women in STEM Conference

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The Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) supports conferences that seek to increase the research capacity of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty and students at HBCUs. Howard University will organize the Third HBCU-HDI Women in STEM Conference for women scientists, researchers, graduate students and faculty from Historically Disadvantaged Institutions (HDIs) in South Africa and from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States. The conference will be held November 26-29, 2019 in East London, South Africa. This conference award supports women STEM faculty and students from HBCUs. The purpose of the conference is to bring together leaders from academia, industry and government to collaborate on strategies to attract and retain women in STEM, targeting women of color faculty in STEM from HBCUs and HDIs. The conference will focus on exploring the following questions: What are the similarities in professional trajectory among women in STEM in South Africa and in the US? What is the professional climate for women in STEM? Are programs used in the US to improve culture and climate issues applicable to South Africa and vice versa? Are there unique opportunities or challenges for women in STEM at HBCUs and HDIs? How can HBCU and HDI STEM women faculty partner to encourage more women to pursue STEM terminal degrees and faculty careers? The plenary sessions and breakout sessions on each full day of the conference will be devoted to addressing one of the guiding questions. The final conference session will summarize the recommendations and solutions proposed by the conference participants.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.